You Don’t Have to Be a Musician: How Everyday Music-Making Supports Healthy Aging

Recreational music participation offers an accessible and engaging pathway to healthy aging. Active involvement in music has been shown to enhance auditory processing, strengthen attentional control, and improve speech perception in noise—a persistent challenge for older adults, especially those with age-related hearing loss. In this talk, I will highlight findings from my lab and others demonstrating that group singing, even among individuals with no prior musical training, can lead to measurable benefits over relatively short periods of participation. Inclusive community singing programs—such as those developed in the SingWell initiative—show particular promise, providing safe, judgment-free spaces where older adults of all abilities can experience the health, communication, and social gains that come from singing together. Beyond auditory improvements, group singing supports vocal strength, respiratory coordination, emotional well-being, and social connectedness. Collectively, this research positions recreational music-making as a scalable, inclusive approach to enhancing communication and quality of life in older adulthood.

Lecturer – Dr. Frank Russo

Frank Russo is a Full Professor of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he directs the Science of Music Auditory Research and Technology (SMART) Lab. He is also the Scientific Director of SingWell, an international consortium on singing, communication, and wellbeing. With 100+ publications and $10M+ in funding, he is a leading researcher in auditory neuroscience, with particular expertise in topics concerning music, hearing, and speech.

https://www.torontomu.ca/psychology/about-us/our-people/faculty/frank-russo/