A New Season of Sing For Your Seniors 20 Years On

For nearly 20 years, Sing For Your Seniors has brought Broadway-caliber talent into senior centers across New York City, providing afternoon sessions of showtunes and camaraderie to audiences in need of connection. The not-for-profit organization has experienced tremendous growth since its early days, facilitated in part by generous grants from Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. 

Outgoing BC/EFA Executive Director Tom Viola, who has lent his steadfast support to Sing For Your Seniors for well over a decade, sang the praises of the organization and its founder, Jackie Vanderbeck. “The impact is huge both for the performers and for those seniors,” Viola told BroadwayWorld. “It’s heartfelt, it’s genuine. It brings both solace and entertainment. It’s wonderful.”

“Jackie’s enthusiasm for not only creating the organization but managing it and sustaining it through these years is really remarkable and impeccable,” Viola continued. “An organization like this does not exist over years without a leader who brings those qualities to the floor.”

Now, after nearly two decades of facilitating connection through song, Vanderbeck is stepping down as Producing Artistic Director. She is passing the torch to Traci Bair, who assumes the role of Executive Director. Vanderbeck will remain an active member of the board and return to the heart of the organization’s mission — connecting with seniors through song.

Founded in 2005, Sing For Your Seniors was born from disconnect. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Vanderbeck was auditioning in New York City but missing her family - especially her grandparents whom she was lucky enough to live next door to growing up. She also recalled being surrounded by people her age and wondering, where are the elders?

“So I was really seeking to sort of remedy those two components that were happening in my life at the time,” Vanderbeck told BroadwayWorld.

After reaching out to various groups and forging a relationship with the Village Adult Day Center in the West Village, Vanderbeck leveraged her classmates from CCM and began inviting them to join her. She kept reaching out to centers around the city, eventually established nonprofit status, and – even through a global pandemic – continued to provide vital connections for seniors. 

Vanderbeck’s passion for people and desire for connection gradually snowballed into the Sing For Your Seniors is known and loved today by hundreds around the boroughs. The organization now has a special focus on serving low-income senior communities, LGBTQ+ elders, veterans and those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia. As of 2024, Sing For Your Seniors averages 85 sessions a year and has served over 45 communities — a far cry from those early days in the West Village when Vanderbeck was flying solo.

A key part of the organization’s growth came from a “fairy godfather,” as Vanderbeck referred to him, in the form of Tom Viola, the Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Viola, a fellow CCM alum, recalled his initial involvement – awarding Sing For Your Seniors $5,000 from BCEFA’s quality of life category of grants. BCEFA’s ongoing support also included the donation of used pianos to some of the centers, including SAGE, which supports LGBTQ+ seniors.

“Jackie’s enthusiasm for founding the organization and leading it sort of spills over into all the Broadway folks who appear to bring these performances to seniors who are not going to be able to get to a theater anymore,” Viola told BroadwayWorld.

Since it was founded, Sing For Your Seniors has partnered with over 20 Broadway shows to bring a taste of the Main Stem to seniors who quite possibly wouldn’t otherwise have that experience, as Viola said. Cast members from Chicago, Fun Home, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Prom – to name a few –  have shared their pizzazz and heart with seniors around the city for intimate but powerful sessions.

The Fun Home session at the previously mentioned SAGE Center was particularly noteworthy, Vanderbeck recalled, given the musical’s subject matter and the seniors who gathered to listen.

“I mean the people at SAGE – these are Stonewall people,” she said, referring to those who started and championed the gay rights movement in the late 1960s. “That's what this organization has been able to do is build these bridges between communities of people that really need each other.”

Going forward, Vanderbeck has full confidence that Bair will do just that.

“I knew after meeting her,” Vanderbeck said of the decision to bring Bair on as Executive Director. “To me, it was important that this person was an artist first. She understood the historical importance of the company as far as what we have accomplished and what were our core values - not only does she understand them but she has lived them. But what I loved about her was her new ideas.”

Along with her administrative experience and volunteerism with Sing For Your Seniors, Bair has a plethora of plans she’s already putting into motion. She’s already exploring what the intergenerational piece of Sing For Your Seniors looks like, born out of her experience bringing her son to volunteer sessions. This month, Sing For Your Seniors is partnering with students from the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, having them perform at 305 West End.

“I’ve seen firsthand the benefits this sort of intergenerational connection has given me, and I think we’re going to spread it around more,” Bair said. 

She’s also working on community tie-ins and other initiatives to bring seniors the music they grew up with. Through her leadership, Sing For Your Seniors was already able to bring members of the Renaissance Church choir to perform at the Central Harlem Senior Center.

“I just think the more humanities we present people with, the more interested and connected we all are,” she said.

As the organization moves into a new season of changes, both Bair and Vanderbeck have the full support of the Sing For Your Seniors board, including its president, Tim Hausmann. The board recognizes the tireless work of Vanderbeck and acknowledges the excitement of Bair taking the reigns.

To celebrate and honor the outgoing Producing Artistic Director, the Jackie Vanderbeck Legacy Fund has been established with a goal of raising $10,000 by the end of the year. The fund will focus on creating new opportunities to serve seniors with dementia – a personal passion of Vanderbeck’s – in the New York tri-state area and in Sacramento, California.

“There is impact we can have beyond this one connection,” Hausmann said. “It’s about implementing the learnings from the last 20 years, which are totally a continuation of our missions, they’re just more fully actualized.”

With Vanderbeck’s guidance and return to the “boots-on-the-ground” mission, as she said, and Bair’s fresh ideas, Sing For Your Seniors looks to the next 20 years and beyond.

Donations can be made to support the ongoing mission of Sing For Your Seniors here. If you’re interested in becoming a Volunteer Performing Artist, you can sign up here.