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Translating Symptoms into Sound: Composer İdil Özkan on Music, Memory, and Loss
June 27 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm PDT
Free
Join us Friday, June 27, at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET for a Live Talk with psychologist and composer İdil Özkan. In this talk, Ozkan will discuss her recent musical compositions exploring the unraveling of memory and how music has helped her process her late father’s experience with Alzheimer’s disease.
Özkan is currently an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute. In this role, she has spent a year researching dementia, integrating personal insight with academic research and creative expression. Her most recent work, Fragments of Memories, combines music, theater, and narration, and explores the emotional and psychological landscape of aging and dementia. Performed by a live chamber ensemble and actors, the piece translates the symptoms of these conditions into sound, inviting the audience not only to understand but to feel how memory and identity change over time.
Previously, Özkan composed “Passage to Ghostland,” a solo cello piece that explores how her father’s experience with Alzheimer’s affected his ability to recall important moments in his life.
In addition to her compositional work, Özkan has delivered numerous seminars and workshops on the impact of music on emotions and the nature of creativity.
RSVP to learn more about Idil Özkan’s multi-disciplinary approach to creative expression and how she continues to leverage music to raise awareness about the experience of living with dementia.
I’m Claire Thomas..and lost my wonderful Educator/Saxophone husband, Daniel Thomas to Dementia/Aphasia, 6 months ago.
He was at his best while he played. When he no longer remembered how assemble his saxophone, I googled it and assembled it for him.
During the night, I would hear him humm a particular song, I would get my phone and found the song to play..and place it by his ear!! His smile and comfort look..singing along was priceless to see!
Hi Claire, thank you so much for sharing your story about your husband. Music can be such a powerful connection — especially for those living with dementia — and it’s touching to hear how you used it to bring him comfort and joy. Here’s a great article on the connection between music and memory: https://www.beingpatient.com/music-as-dementia-therapy-coronavirus/?utm_source=organic&utm_medium=social – take care.