Lifesongs

Being a musical facilitator of major life transitions is the business of soul work with individuals and collectives. Many of us turn to music to help us through the challenging and good times in life. It is fundamental to almost all human cultures. It can activate our hearts and heal through emotional integrations, frequency corrections, social bonding, lifting of diverse unique expressions and so much more. To create together at the end of life, and then for young people to sing the pieces that were collaboratively created with elders and people in hospice, is deep social medicine and a cultural corrective. When we shun death, decay and even aging, because we feel uncomfortable, we harm ourselves and our ability to grow and learn as a society. Lifesongs simply helps us to remember what is important. Music is a connective tissue. Like all arts, when done in a certain way, it is the language of the heart and soul.

This project emerged out of a community opera commission with the Santa Fe Opera when I chose to work with elders stuck in nursing homes as part of it. To write music with people at the end of life was a dream in my heart having been raised by a grandmother who played music in nursing homes. Going with her often during my teenage years I learned about the healing power of music and it became the foundation of my life’s work. Over the years, having worked at many life transitions including working on The Lullaby Project with University of Colorado and Carnegie Hall with vulnerable moms and babies, I came to feel like a musical chaplain of sorts. All of it has been an honor to be a part of.

The work of Lifesongs under Molly’s direction is now under the new program OPUS

Lifesongs is a life-affirming, intergenerational arts program that engages local communities to heal the fear that shrouds aging, illness, and death. Through deep relationship-building, storytelling, music, and performance, Lifesongs promotes dignity and inclusion for elders and those at the end of life.  Lifesongs brings together youth, elders, and community members to create musical events and new artistic works  that that build community, lift vision and voices, and cultivates a sense of joy and well-being in participants.

Lifesongs brings elders and people in hospice together with artists, youth, and other community members in creative exchange. Working one-on-one and in ensembles, participants develop original works that incorporate music, movement, and multimedia to explore the richness of all stages of life.

After many months of collaboration, the pieces are performed in a public concert by professional musicians, local choirs, and artists of all ages. Through witnessing our elders’ songs and stories, we connect around what we share as opposed to what separates us, we bless and heal the past, and we hold our elders and the dying in their potential rather than their decline.In addition to public performances and scalable concerts, Lifesongs provides free and public facilitated dialogues on death and dying with community partners.

Lifesongs was founded in 2007 by The Santa Fe Opera and Littleglobe under the leadership of Acushla Bastible, Andrea Fellows Walters and myself. In 2011, Lifesongs became a program of the Academy for the Love of Learning in partnership with Littleglobe.

I left Lifesongs in 2017 and as of early 2022 the heart of the work is being birthed under a new name OPUS:. The focus on community wellbeing and music overall includes end of life. The first project is taking place in spring 2022 in Michigan entitled Stories That Heal.

Lifesongs: A Short Introduction

The short documentary below about Lifesongs: