Lost Chord and Dementia

Lost ChordLost Chord was founded by our Chief Executive Helena Muller in 1999. From its earliest beginnings with 11 residential homes in Rotherham, Lost Chord has expanded into many parts of South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, with satellite schemes in London and Wales.

Lost Chord produces more than 1100 interactive musical sessions a year in more than 100 settings, designed to stimulate responses from dementia sufferers through the media of music, song and dance.
We regularly receive requests for concerts from much further afield. This means we are always looking for more income generating opportunities, because we know that with extra funding, we could do so much more!

‘We are unique in that we are probably the only organisation in the country which visits the same homes each month in order to build on the responses achieved in previous successive concerts. The past ten years have been an exciting journey of discovery into dealing with dementia sufferers.’
Helena Muller, founder

The music is designed to improve the quality of life by raising self esteem and promoting well being among dementia sufferers and those with dementia-like symptoms in residential homes and day centres.

What is Dementia?

It is a well proven fact that the aural sense is the last sense to diminish, so it is vitally important that we keep stimulating this sense for as long as possible. While short term memory appears to be the first to go, long term memory can remain intact for much longer. Lost Chord’s interactive sessions have been carefully designed to stimulate that long term memory.

”We aim to have a positive effect on dementia sufferers by using music to stimulate the areas of the brain which are still intact. We’re hoping to maintain some sort of communication with these residents for a longer period of time through the different stages of the disease. This is particularly important where verbal communication is no longer possible.

Each month those of us involved in the scheme experience new dimensions of its effectiveness, which merely confirms clincical evidence that there are certain areas of the brain associated with musical patterns which remain potentially responsive, even when other areas have virtually deteriorated.”

Helena Muller, founder