By Nandani (Nani) Sinha, AGMA Soloist
Author’s Update (2026)
This article was originally published in a 2021 issue of AGMAzine. Five years later, and I remain deeply grateful that AGMA shared my family’s story.
What began as a personal response to my father’s journey with Parkinson’s disease and Parkinsonian dementia has grown into a broader mission. Through Music Heals Minds, we now partner with senior living communities, healthcare organizations, and caregivers to provide culturally responsive live music experiences that foster connection, identity, and joy for individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological conditions.
Today, my work has expanded beyond performance. As a 2028 doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins University, my research explores the intersection of music, healthcare, leadership, and education, with a focus on developing standards and training for teaching artists working in healthcare settings. In addition, I am collaborating with members of Congress and other healthcare leaders to explore pathways for greater recognition of evidence-informed, non-pharmacological arts interventions, including expanding access through healthcare and insurance systems.
Music Heals Minds is also entering an exciting new chapter. In addition to our dementia and brain health programs, we are expanding our work to serve individuals living with respiratory conditions and other medical disabilities through innovative singing-based wellness initiatives designed to support breathing, emotional well-being, and quality of life.
Although our programs have grown to reach thousands of participants, caregivers, and families, the heart of this work remains exactly where it began, with my father. Every song we share is a reminder that music has the power to reconnect people with memory, identity, dignity, and one another.
I remain profoundly grateful to AGMA and to my fellow artists, whose artistry and compassion continue to demonstrate that music is far more than performance; it is a powerful force for healing, connection, and hope.
Hello, AGMA friends and colleagues. My name is Nandani Sinha, but please call me Nani. I am an opera singer and the founder and Executive Director of Music Heals Minds (MHM), Los Angeles. Before I tell you about MHM, I would love to share with you a bit about the genesis and creation during the pandemic.
I am the daughter of two incredible parents who braved leaving the old world of Europe and Asia to
create their family and future in the new world, America. That led to so many pioneering opportunities for them and their family. My father was a Professor of Sociology and one of the smartest people I know. My mother is equally brilliant and pursued her passion in Psychology.
We lived in New York and our family grew. I followed my passion for music with a degree in Operatic Performance and traveled the world to sing with opera companies and in festivals and concert halls on almost every continent.
I moved to Los Angeles to continue my work in opera and made this beautiful city my home. A short time later, my father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and his version of the disease also brought forth Parkinsonian Dementia. This brilliant man, whom I had looked up to my entire life, was fading before my eyes. Every visit home to New York, I saw a decline in cognitive function and recognition of me as his daughter. This led to the day when I was a stranger to my own father. He was frightened of me and would only find calm and peace in my presence if my mother was also there. My mother was his “person.” The only “person” in the world who he recognized and depended upon solely. My poor mother was exhausted and overwhelmed like all caregivers in this position. Not only was she my father’s everything, but she also had to be the bridge between my father and his own beloved children.
One day, while visiting with my dad, and running out of conversation because of his difficulty in remembering words and events, I sat in my parents’ living room and started singing along to the songs on the radio. My father loved the radio and had it on at all waking hours. I sang along to famous arias sung by operatic legends and suddenly a light flashed in my father’s eyes and he started singing along, conducting and talking about when he had seen this opera or that singer at the Met or New York City Center.
I was stunned. I thought I had lost my father, but he was still there! My dad was still there. I sobbed with relief and hope.
Unfortunately, his cognitive progress did not last long, and we were back to his decline, but every time we sang or played music that he knew, he was animated and active again. The music also brought him a sense of calm and peace that he did not experience unless he was in my mother’s company.
I returned to Los Angeles and my mother would take my father to the Met Live in HD broadcast at the movie theatreand my father would always pick out the mezzo-soprano and tell my mother all about his opera singer daughter and how she sings Carmen. Music was the gift that brought my father back to us. I did some research, consulted Music Therapist friends, and learned that because music is related to one of the five senses (hearing), it is regulated by the brain. It makes sense to utilize music listening to stimulate cognitive function in the same way that we use physical therapy to regain mobility and physical function in our limbs, muscles, and joints.
Additionally, I found music can also be used for more than just your loved one as a kind of healing.
We know that caring for a loved one causes caregivers to experience heightened stress. Studies have shown that listening to music increases melatonin secretion (a hormone linked to mood control), reduced aggression and depression, and improved sleep. Using music to deal with these frequent issues voiced by caregivers might be beneficial.
When I returned to Los Angeles, I decided that since I could not be there daily to sing for my dad in person, I would commit to volunteering in Enliven Units throughout Los Angeles. Enliven Units are the memory care units in nursing homes and senior residences. I sang with companies such as Songs By Heart, Rancho Los Amigos, City of Hope, Los Angeles Opera Connects and Alzheimer’s Los Angeles. It has been my pleasure to be a part of creating music programs that help people with dementia, Alzheimer’s and brain injury to connect with themselves, the world and their caregivers in a meaningful way again.
My father passed in June of 2015, and even though he passed and I was not able to engage with him musically anymore, I had built strong relationships and bonds with memory care communities in Southern California. I decided to honor my father and his legacy of a pioneering spirit by continuing my work and fulfilling a need in this community for engaging and exciting programs. One of the hallmarks of my programs is that I bring to these communities songs in over 15 languages. I have brought songs to communities in Mandarin, Korean, Russian, Spanish, French, Gaelic, Finnish, Dutch, English, German, Hawaiian, Latin, Italian, and many more because my career as an opera singer prepared me to learn and have fluency with many languages. It is wonderful to bring music, but it is even more special to sing a song to someone in their native tongue that they associate with their childhood. These memories trigger such animation and clarity in cognitive function.
Due to the pandemic, all my operatic work had been canceled. I found that the memory care communities I had been singing for were also shut down for safety reasons. So, I shifted over to a virtual model privately for them. I also went public with this model weekly with Los Angeles Opera Connect’s Music to Remember and monthly with Alzheimer’s Los Angeles Memory Mornings, for the Alzheimer’s and dementia communities at large. We spend Tuesday and Thursday mornings providing music, space, and some entertainment and relief to patients and their caregivers.
I am so proud to be a part of the LA Opera and Alzheimer’s LA programs and am proud of our efforts in pushing this type of community service work forward and making music a part of the healing journey of dementia, Alzheimer’s, and traumatic brain injury sufferers and their caregivers.
When I was a child, my father always told me, “Whatever you do, just make sure it’s your job to leave the world a little bit of a better place than when you entered it.”
So, this is my way of being able to do that and still work on my craft. I cannot tell you the calm and joy it brought to my life during this incredibly awful time in our history. I am very grateful for every song and session with these beautiful people.