Many of the singers in Giving Voice Chorus have hearing aids and get lost in the sheet music, but at a rehearsal Monday they could all belt out the 1971 hit “Jeremiah was a Bullfrog.”

The chorus is for people with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, along with their spouses or caregivers.

The program started two years ago in Minneapolis at MacPhail Center for Music and expanded this fall to St. Paul, where about 50 singers meet weekly in the chapel of Lyngblomsten’s senior housing campus.

On Sunday, the St. Paul group performs its first concert, at the Minnesota History Center.

As baby boomers age, several nonprofit organizations have launched programs to help seniors make music. VocalEssence’s Vintage Voices hosts 12-week choirs at nursing homes and assisted living centers. MacPhail’s Music for Life program offers lessons, classes and choirs for those age 55 and older.

Giving Voice Chorus grew out of conversations between co-founders Marge Ostroushko, a public radio producer, and Mary Lenard, a former executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota-North Dakota Chapter. The two friends simply wanted to do a project together.

“Mary had been getting all these articles about music and memory,” said Ostroushko. “So, we thought, let’s take a look at that. That’s where we began our journey.”

Some research suggests that making music improves memory and cognition in those with dementia. Often people who can’t hold a conversation can still sing lyrics. And, singing can bolster people’s moods.

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Dickson, an 82-year-old retired railroad executive from Falcon Heights, has a mild cognitive impairment and comes weekly with his partner, Dianne Gordon. His son Tom Dickson, who was visiting from Montana, said his father grew up singing hymns and country music.

“Singing is important for him,” said Tom Dickson, who watched from the sidelines as his father sang “You are My Sunshine.” “When he sings, it’s like it taps into a deep part of himself that’s fully intact. It warms my heart to see him fully engaged.”

Mary Comford, who lives in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, usually sits in the back row with her husband, John Comford, who worked as a trader on the grain exchange before being diagnosed two years ago with Alzheimer’s disease.

Now at age 69, he has forgotten a lot of things. But singing is something they can do together.

“It’s just fun,” said Mary, who said their favorite song is “Joy to the World” (“Jeremiah was a Bullfrog”) “because it makes your whole body move.”

DIRECTOR DEMANDS THE BEST

Much of the chorus’ success is due to director Jeanie Brindley-Barnett, who co-founded MacPhail’s music program for seniors. She doesn’t talk down to singers and doesn’t expect anything less than the best they can give.

“You almost got the Amen!” she said after one piece. “And nobody would notice you didn’t, except me. So don’t look at your book. Look at me because I’m giving you notes.”

She waited until every distracted eye in the room focused on her and then started again, stabbing her hand up and down to mimic the rising and falling pitch. It sounded better the second time and she heaped on praise: “That was just tremendous!”

Brindley-Barnett picks familiar tunes and asks people for suggestions of what to sing. Over two years with the Minneapolis chorus, organizers say they’ve seen people with memory loss learn new songs, lyrics, even harmonies. Alzheimer’s patients don’t always get that kind of challenge.

“They get pushed aside and overlooked,” said Carolyn Klaver, a registered nurse who oversees Lyngblomsten’s community dementia care and who trains volunteers who sit alongside singers who need help turning pages. “Here they’re encouraged to have a solo, to read a reading. They have an equal role.”

SWEET MEMORIES

On Monday, couples practiced introductions to the songs they will give at the performance. One couple, who happened to be marking their 41st wedding anniversary, introduced “It Had to Be You.” The older woman mentioned hearing Frank Sinatra’s version on the radio and turned to her husband with a smile. “Do you remember that song, ‘It Had to Be You?’ ”

“Yes, how could I forget that one,” he said, prompting a laugh from the chorus.

Bob Horn was on the verge of tears as he came forward with his wife, Ann Horn, to introduce the last song.

“’Look to the Rainbow’ talks about following your dream,” he read from the script. “No matter what the journey entails.”

The couple first heard the song in the early 1970s at a production of the musical “Finian’s Rainbow.”

“It brought back memories,” Bob Horn said later. “And sometimes your dream doesn’t turn out like you think it will.” After Ann was diagnosed in 2012 with dementia related to Parkinson’s disease, she moved into assisted living. Bob stayed in their Woodbury home. He heard about the chorus through a dementia respite-care program, but initially Ann didn’t want to go.

“Now she is the one who wants to sing,” Horn said. “She says, ‘Get your butt in gear, let’s practice.’ ” The couple sings along to the practice CD nearly every afternoon. Weekly rehearsals feel like a date, usually followed by lunch at a restaurant.

How does singing make Ann feel? She takes a long moment to gather her thoughts and finally says slowly, “upbeat and relaxed.”

“It’s not preventing the continuing progression of the disease,” her husband said. “But it’s brought a sparkle in her that hadn’t been there before.”

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