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MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (KARE) — For one generation it's "Lion Sleeps Tonight", for another "Call Me Maybe."
They're the songs that get stuck in our heads, and not nearly so annoying when placed in the context of a choir made up of Alzheimer's patients.
"That's where the magic comes in," said Mary Lenard, founder of Minneapolis' Giving Voice Chorus earlier this year with her longtime friend, Marge Ostroushko.
Once a week since September, roughly 30 Alzheimer's and dementia patients have rehearsed side-by-side with their care givers at MacPhail Center for Music.
The "magic" to which Lenard refers happens once coats are hung and director Jeanie Brindley-Barnett raises her arms.
Suddenly, patients who entered the room having difficulty holding a thought or stringing even a few words together, belt out tunes from Rogers & Hammerstein and the Beatles.
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