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Former Albert Lea High School choir teacher Diane Heaney has seen first-hand the joy that can come from music at all ages.

As a teacher, Heaney recalled taking students caroling during the Christmas season at memory care units in area senior living facilities. There, she would be inspired each year by how the students were able to reach the people through music. While some of the residents may not have remembered much about their own lives or what was happening around them, once they started singing, they would remember all of the verses to the popular Christmas hymns they sang.

“You can tell that music is what connects them,” she said. “It was so evident. It was one of the neatest things to watch my students with these folks.”

With those memories in mind, Heaney, through the MacPhail Center for Music, is launching a new choir in Albert Lea for people living with dementia and their caregivers.

Called the Lake Song Chorus, the choir will meet starting March 27 in the chapel at St. John’s Lutheran Community’s Luther Place campus, 901 Luther Place.

Heaney said she previously attended a few concerts put on through the Giving Voice initiative, which inspires and equips organizations to bring together people with Alzheimer’s and their care partners to sing in choruses, and she said she was touched by what she saw and heard at the concerts.

“It’s so wonderful,” she said. “There’s not a dry eye in the house.”

MacPhail started its own program through its Music for Life program, which is designed for adults 55 and older. Lake Song will be MacPhail’s third choir serving families of those living with memory loss.

“I just thought we need one here,” said Heaney, who also works through MacPhail teaching voice lessons. The choir will meet every Thursday morning for the season for two hours through June 5.

They will start with social time, coffee and snacks at 9:30 a.m., and then rehearsal will begin at 10 a.m. with stretches and warmups. She said the routine will be the same each week.

They will sing seven to nine pieces, mostly familiar music, and in the middle of the practice there will be a time to have a short break for a little more movement and what she described as an interview time.

The choir will include not only people with dementia and their caregivers, but also other community volunteers. No previous singing experience is necessary.

Everyone in the choir will get his or her own music, and she said they would like to accommodate people’s needs as much as possible, whether that be for larger print or if someone would prefer to just have the words on a paper instead of having the sheet music, for example. She also hopes to accommodate for hearing preferences or other accessibility needs.

People who want to participate are asked to sign up by March 6 to allow time to prepare the music. Tuition is $25 per individual or $30 per couple to cover expenses.

Heaney said she does not want cost to be a factor, so people are still encouraged to sign up even if they cannot pay the full amount.

People can register through forms available at the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce, by calling MacPhail Center for Music at 507-396-6730 or by going online to http://apm.activecommunities.com/macphail/Activity_Search/22795.

The choir will rehearse weekly from March 27 through June 5 with a performance slated for 1 p.m. June 7, also at St. John’s.

The choir will be accompanied by Bob Tewes.

Donations are accepted for the choir through the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce.