Bringing the Gift of Music to Brio Living Services Residents

Robert Nordling, a distinguished conductor, Music Director of the Shoreline Music Society, and an integral partner of the UMRC-Porter Hills Foundation Concert Series, stood before the crowd of residents at Porter Hills Village anxiously waiting to hear jazz savants, The Terry Lower Trio. Robert asked the audience, “How do these Foundation Concerts make you feel?”

One by one, hands began to raise, and among the answers from the crowd were “excited,” “inspired,” and “reminiscent.”

Across Brio Living Services, each amenity and program is crafted with intention and the well-being of each of our residents in mind. Thanks to the support of the UMRC-Porter Hills Foundation, and generous gifts to our Life Enrichment pillar, we help provide these experiences for older adults. This includes the Foundation Concert Series at many of our campuses, providing high quality, live music for residents, families, and friends.

Outdoor concerts have been a summer staple at Chelsea Retirement Community for many years, thanks to gifts to the Thorhauer Legacy Fund, honoring retired President and CEO of Brio Living Services, John Thorhauer. Today, the joy of music has expanded to other Brio communities, garnering philanthropic support from residents and community foundations who believe in the power of music to bring people together, inspire creativity, heal those who listen, and transport us to different times in our lives.

Nelson Lumm, a Porter Hills Village resident since 2019, experienced firsthand the nostalgia these concerts can provide residents while listening to a powerful performance by Ryan DeRyke and Alex Newkirk at a recent installment of the Foundation Concert Series. As Ryan’s baritone voice filled the room and Alex’s fingers blissfully glided across the piano keys to the 1960’s song “Moon River,” Nelson was brought back to moments in time with his late wife of 40+ years, Marney. Nelson describes “Moon River” as the “theme song” to their life together. He emphasized how incredible it was that one song could bring back a lifetime’s worth of memories filled with love and companionship to him and their three children. So touched by that moment, Nelson made a gift to the UMRC-Porter Hills Foundation so that others could continue to experience these sentimental moments as well.

For the Hartger family, it wasn’t a song, but a piano—purchased a century prior— that would launch the concert series at Cook Valley Estates and carry on the legacy of their late mother, Majorie Bjork, a former resident at Cook Valley Estates. Donated in 2010 to Cook Valley Estates, Marjorie’s exquisite Steinway piano is steeped in history dating back to 1918, when Majorie’s mother, Helen Wykes, purchased it amid World War I in Germany. The piano was used by Helen to study music and even play in front of royalty in Europe before the war forced her to cut her studies short and move back to Michigan. In 2021, Majorie’s family made a generous contribution to the UMRC-Porter Hills Foundation to create the “Marjorie Bjork Concert Series”, in partnership with the Shoreline Music Society, to honor their mother and grandmother. Now the Foundation Concert Series, these concerts continue to bring in world-class musicians to perform on the Helen Wykes Steinway piano.

Two years later, the Foundation Concert Series expanded to Porter Hills Village, thanks to gifts to the UMRC-Porter Hills Foundation from residents and donors, including June Marshall, retired voice professor at Aquinas College and longtime Porter Hills Village resident.

“Music soothes the soul,” says June. “Our residents deserve the chance to enjoy quality music, and these concerts are fabulous. I tell everyone how exceptionally good they are. I invited three of my friends who love jazz to come today. They can’t wait to come back!”

In November 2024, the Foundation secured a sponsorship gift of $5,000 from the Cascade Community Foundation to support next year’s Foundation Concert Series at Porter Hills Village.

For more information on how you can help sustain concerts and the love of music for residents at our Brio Living Services communities, please contact the Foundation at Advancement@UMRCPH.org or visit our website.