Music-making in a senior living community: Iris Music Project’s Ensemble-in-Residence model

This Note from the Field is from the Iris Music Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to reimagining senior living communities as places of creative exchanges. Using examples from Iris Piano Trio’s Ensemble-in-Residence model, this article argues that creating community bonds needs to be the central goal of programming in senior living communities in order to mitigate loneliness among older adults. The article also suggests that the core tenets of the Ensemble-in-Residence model could be applied to other artistic disciplines, creating a wider workforce of individuals poised to help solve the persistent problem of loneliness in these settings.