Threshold Choir makes kindness audible
When Oxford's Threshold Choir rehearses, the members have a specific audience in mind: hospice residents at The Knolls.
In the Health Center of The Knolls of Oxford, the sound of voices floats through the halls. The sound leads to a room, with a choir of students and other Knolls residents harmonizing around a patient as she lies in bed.
As the group finishes their last song, she wipes a tear from her eye, thanking them for their music. The group exits with a warm smile and a goodbye.
Jessica Miller, head of the Threshold Choir at Miami, leads the group. Each Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., the choir meets in the auditorium of The Knolls to practice a set of simple songs specifically written for Threshold for the purpose of singing to elderly patients.
Threshold Choirs originated in the 2000s as a way to provide art and music to patients who could no longer make them for themselves. Miami’s Choir was started in 2016 by Elizabeth Lokon, a former Miami faculty member from the Scripps Gerontology Center. While at Scripps, Lokon founded a group called Opening Minds Through Art (OMA), a now-international organization that focuses on creating art with patients with dementia.
“I realized that beyond a certain point, a person living with dementia can no longer participate in art-making,” Lokon said. After seeing other threshold choirs in action, including a separate choir that sang for her own father, she was inspired to start a chapter at Miami.
The choir from Oxford wears brightly colored laminated name tags and holds folders filled with sheet music. They are young and old, but their voices still blend together beautifully.
From 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. the group travels from room to room, always asking permission before they sing. They gather in the warm rooms of the Knolls to sing four or five of the simple tunes before thanking the patient and moving on. Each week, the group visits the hospice patients to give the gift of song in hard times.
Diane Young, a choir member and Knolls resident, says it’s easy to join.
“You don’t have to be a professional singer,” Young said.
For Lokon, the goal of the group is simple: Make kindness audible.
”So when we sing, we look at them, we sing to them,” Lokon said, “We are not performing for them, but we are sending kindness to them through our songs. That's the most important thing.”
The most important thing to Miller is the moments she gets with patients.
“One time we sang the song ‘So Many Angels’ and a woman told us we were the true angels around her,” Miller said. “It’s the moments like that from the hospice patients that make it feel like we are making a difference.”
Editor's Note: The online version of this story has been updated from the April 4 print version to correct the spelling of Elizabeth Lokon's name, which was misspelled in two locations.
