ACIS Honorary Research Fellow, Dr Simone Marino, has completed the first data collection for his HRA project 'Music, Aging and Dementia: Accessing the power of music, language, and song composition to improve wellbeing of Italian migrants living with dementia in Australia', under the mentorship of Professor Loretta Baldassar.

Simone has been engaged in data collection from older Italian migrants who live in Adelaide, either in residential care facilities, or in their own homes with home-care services. Whilst the project focus is on people with dementia,  the participants’ cognitive conditions vary, and the project has also  included older Italian migrants who have not been diagnosed with dementia but who were keen to participate.

The aim of the project is to develop a music engagement program to stimulate cultural memory, social identity, and mental activity through emotions that participants re-experience by engaging with music and stories that remind them of their past or home country. 

Simone’s music engagement programme also includes a process of co-writing songs with participants (and their families) – a process he methodologically calls 'comusichiamo'.  These songs are written in the participants’ first language, and are related to their migration stories.

Simone’s unique methodology combines ethnography, participant observation and qualitative interviews to monitor patterns of cultural and social engagement through music; a methodological framework at the intersection between ethnomusicology and music therapy. Simone provided participants with ten individual sessions in which they (and family members) told him about their life stories. Based on these stories, Simone composed a tailored song for each participant.

On Wednesday 22 September 2021 Simone delivered a concert for the residents of Saint Hilarion Aged Care in Adelaide. This aged care facilitiy was founded by the migrant community from Caulonia in Calabria and is named after the town's patron saint. At this concert, Simone played old Italian songs in front of approximately 40 residents who enjoyed singing and listening to the songs. During the concert Simone also performed the tailored songs he had composed. Participants, their families and the staff were greatly appreciative of the outcome.