Swinging with The 5th Dementia

Twice a week, four older men get together to make music. There may be nothing unusual about that, but aging has not been kind to them: To varying degrees, they’ve been affected by dementia or Parkinson’s disease. 

Nevertheless, when they get together and play standards from the American songbook — from “You Are My Sunshine” to “Fly Me to the Moon” — they can’t stop smiling.

Gene Sterling, a skilled drummer, leads the quartet. When he plays, there’s hardly any sign of his usual tremor. “Let’s do it bossa nova style,” he calls out before laying out a tempo. 

Paul Livadary, on piano, follows the beat, but Irwin Rosenstein, on electric keyboard, seems lost for the moment, and Sam Mayo, on harmonica, sways to a tempo all his own. When the song is over, Sterling jokingly suggests that for their next piece, they all play different songs — at the same time.

“Let’s see how that sounds,” he says. 

Livadary offers the reminder that “in this group, there aren’t any wrong notes”; Sterling laughs and nods.

Welcome to The 5th Dementia, a musical group with a name so self-mocking, it clearly doesn’t need to follow normal rules of rhythm and tempo. It was founded this past summer, along with parent organization MusicMendsMinds (motto: “restoring the rhythm of life”), by Carol Port Rosenstein and husband Irwin, the group’s aforementioned electric keyboardist, who is a 78-year-old retired attorney with Parkinson’s and early-stage dementia. 

The inspiration for creating The 5th Dementia (a play on the name of the 1960s band The 5th Dimension) occurred when Carol Rosenstein was participating in TimeOut@UCLA, a UCLA program designed to give respite to caregivers. She was taking a needed break, and her husband was at OPICA (Optimistic People in a Caring Atmosphere), the adult day-care center associated with TimeOut@UCLA, where there happened to be a piano. That’s when Irwin began picking out tunes he remembered from his college days. 

The first time he played, he didn’t get much of a reaction from the others; he thought his piano-playing had been a failure. But the next time Irwin gave it a go, others at the day-care center circled him and joined in by singing, including UCLA student volunteers who were paired with the seniors. When he came home afterward, Carol remembers, he was animated and happy. 

“At OPICA, they gave me a job,” Irwin said. “They asked me to be the music man.” 

Carol noticed that when her husband played music, he seemed to change in positive ways. He was more focused, more alive. 

“At night, when Irwin’s medication dose was low, playing piano would change his mood,” she said. This led her to ask Dr. Jeff Bronstein, a UCLA neurologist, if it was possible that music had “pushed despair aside” in Irwin’s brain. 

“Dr. Bronstein told me that it was not only possible, it was probable.” 

Apparently, the parts of Irwin’s brain that contain musical memory and skills have not been drastically affected by his ailments. And he’s not alone: MusicMendsMinds.org draws on scientific studies to explain that rhythmic responses don’t require cognitive processing and that a person’s ability to engage in music can remain intact despite dementia.

Dr. Gary Small, director of UCLA’s Longevity Center, told the Journal that “music has a powerful effect on the brain.” Not only can playing music improve dementia symptoms, he said, just listening to music can have a positive effect on those with cognitive impairment.

Originally from South Africa, Carol is a dynamic 69-year-old redhead who met Irwin 30 years ago by way of the Jewish Journal personals. They were later married at University Synagogue in Brentwood. She told the Journal she’s a retired chiropractor who has been a “pioneer and educator in the field of holistic mind/body medicine.” Speculating that others like her husband might benefit from playing music, she mentioned the experience to her meditation group, InsightLA. 

That’s where Sterling, 68, with a tremor in his left arm, heard about it and asked about playing music with Irwin. The meditation teacher connected Carol with Livadary, 78, a piano-playing former attorney with short-term memory loss. And Mayo, 83, a retired Pierce College history professor, added his harmonica to the group, thanks to a contact at UCLA’s dementia-treatment center.

The 5th Dementia faced one immediate challenge when they learned that Mayo’s harmonica was appropriate only for songs played in the key of C or G. The others in the group shrugged that off as a minor issue, though — they decided all their songs would be in those keys. 

“Playing music with the others is the happiest time of the week for Irwin,” Carol said. “And I know it’s true for the others, as well. Each one of these men has had a thread of depression, and playing music has improved that.”

The men meet twice a week. On Mondays, they get together in the chapel of Brentwood Presbyterian Church, and on Wednesdays they jam at Windward School in Mar Vista, both of which have provided space for group. 

Recent rehearsals have been focused on preparing holiday songs they’ll play at their first public concert, Dec. 19 at Brentwood Presbyterian. At the end of a run-through of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” Livadary, on the piano, added a flourish, drawing applause and thumbs-up signs from wives and caregivers, as well as from several young music students at Windward who play with the older men.

“This has been a godsend for these men,” Carol said. “They’ve developed enormous camaraderie. It’s become a new family for them. It’s not just therapeutic, it’s life-saving.”

She said she’s trying to find more musical seniors with Parkinson’s or early-stage dementia. 

“There’s no reason why we can’t have many groups like this throughout L.A.,” she said. “Ultimately, we’re hoping to change how mild dementia is handled. In the past, once it sets in, even in the early stages, patients were already waiting to die. But that does not have to be. When these men play music, they feel human. They feel connected to one another.

“I’d like the word to go out to all early-dementia patients who can play music — they don’t have to be skilled musicians. Come here and join us, see if it changes your life just as it’s changed the lives of these men. Since Irwin started playing music again — after not doing it for decades — it’s given me back a part of my husband.”