Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Enrichment Through Participation in Group Singing: Interviews with Members of a Choir for Homeless Men

BETTY BAILEY spent her formative years in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, where from the age of four she participated in a wide variety of musical activities which revolved around school, church and community. Betty regularly performed for seniors and physically and mentally impaired individuals in institutional settings which instilled an early impression of the ability of music to enhance life satisfaction among the infirm and impaired. She received a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1973 and subsequently worked in the accounting department of a large corporation. After the birth of her son in 1976, she chose to pursue motherhood as a full-time career. Betty’s passion for choral music has been satisfied through membership in several church and community choirs. She has been an avid volunteer in organizations that promote artistic and athletic opportunities for young people and the elderly. An unwavering interest in psychological inquiry led Betty to the University of Prince Edward Island where she undertook a B.A. degree, graduating first class in Psychology in 1996. The honours portion of the program was supervised by Annabel Cohen; it was in Dr. Cohen’s Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory that Betty’s earlier interests in the psychological effects of music were revived. Betty now holds a M.A. degree in Psychology for Musicians from the University of Sheffield, UK, with distinction. Currently, she is in the early stages of her doctoral research with Jane Davidson at the University of Sheffield. The focus of her doctoral research is the adaptive characteristics of group singing from a multicultural perspective.

JANE W. DAVIDSON is a senior lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Sheffield with a background in music, contemporary dance, and psychology. She has published more than fifty scholarly articles and book chapters on performance, expression, therapy, and the determinants of artistic abilities. She is editor of the international journal, Psychology of Music. In addition to her work at Sheffield, she is a visiting professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Polytechnic Institute Porto, Universidade da Aveiro, and the Lucerne Konservatorium. As a solo singer, Jane has appeared in many major venues in Europe, North America and UK, including singing the principal role in Dimitri Smironov’s Lamentations of Thel premiered at the London International Opera Festival, 1988. In music theatre and dance performance, she has worked with the innovative Extemporary Dance Theatre and Theatre de Complicite. Jane also devises and directs The Operaworks project of 1997 appearing at the Edinburgh International Festival of the Arts, and Soundmoves (including her own performance of Pierrot Lunaire) touring England and Portugal in February 2000. Jane has also choreographed a number of dance works and fully staged operas including Hildegard’s medieval music drama Ordo Virtutum. In Summer 1997 she directed Dido and Aeneas for the Guidhall