Greetings Reader,

This is a topic that’s not too much fun to discuss but can be important in moving our careers forward. It’s a bit of a deeper dive into the idea of performing in the retirement community as a volunteer or as a professional, and the perceptions/responses/feedback you may get from some people that either lack understanding or are just trying to tear down others. I apologize for the length but I wanted to be thorough.

If you don’t want to read all these words,

here’s an outline:

1. Thank you and hurray for all who volunteer to make the world a better place.
2. I have both volunteered and been paid for performing in the retirement community for over thirty five years and it has been my primary means of income for over 25 years.
3. While the vast majority of people have been very supportive of my work serving seniors, there are some who are critical, either because they lack understanding or because trying to tear others down makes them feel better about themselves. If you encounter this, please don’t let it distract you from the important work you’re doing. If you read through this writing you may find the info that will help you present a better understanding to these people that don’t understand. As far as the others, probably all you can do is ignore them. But I encourage you to remember that you don’t need to answer to them and just go about your business. What you’re doing is important.
4. If you are fairly compensated serving the senior community it allows you to do more of it thus impacting more people for good
5. Retirement facilities have budgets set aside to pay for entertainment and activities. It’s built into the cost of staying at these facilities. So you’re not taking anything from the residents. If you close to volunteer, which is absolutely fine, be aware that you won’t be saving the residents any money, and you won’t be able to do as much performing there as you might like if you need to make a living.
6. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to put together and consistently adapt a program that will be meaningful and life enriching to your audiences and you should be compensated for that as you would for any other job you have.

The Full Version

My career as a musician has been primarily focussed on performing in the retirement community for over thirty five years. Over those years I have, at various times, been in bands, done solo gigging in other arenas, taught music lessons, and held down various music director positions. But the constant focus has been serving the retirement community.

Early on I was volunteering my time performing for the senior community and then transitioned into focussing on performing in the retirement community full time. There were years that I would do over 400 performances in a year. While I always have, and still continue to do a fair amount of volunteer work, I never could have affected so many lives if I wasn’t being compensated for it. Obviously you have to be paid for your work in order to stay afloat financially, which, in turn allows you to keep doing what your passion is.

I recently created the course, “Inspire the Retired” which instructs people on how to go about creating, marketing, and sustaining a business serving people in the retirement community. (There’s a lot to it. It can be a full time job+ to do right).

The creation and promotion of this course has caused me to be interacting with people on social media, and in other ways, who I may have never otherwise interacted with, regarding performing in the senior community.

Throughout my career I have always found people were very encouraging about what I do, but as I interact on social media I find some people with a less positive response. In fact, some of these responses smack of “virtue signaling” as people want to denigrate my contribution with an air of superiority because they perform as a volunteer or feel that we should donate our time.

I figured if this happens to me it might happen to others and, while the people with these attitudes of superiority don’t bother me, it might be worth sharing some thoughts that may help others.

So, first off, I’m in no way being critical of people that volunteer their time as musicians, or in any other way, to make peoples lives better.

I think that’s a fantastic thing and, as mentioned earlier, I continue to volunteer in various ways. So if you’re volunteering to help out, hurray for you!

What I want to try to communicate is how a professional approach to performing in the retirement community can be the best thing for those that you’re performing for, and for you also.

To start with, there is the harsh reality that it takes money to live. As an adult we need to find a way to finance our life and the lives of those we care for. As musicians/artists we have a choice of trying to make a living in that art form or find another profession to make money and pursue our artistic visions as an amateur or semi pro. Either of these options is entirely fine based on your temperament, desires, and personal reality.

If, like me, you are devoted to creating your art and using it for as much good as possible, it makes sense to try to find a way to impact as many people as much as possible which translates to making it your full time job, if possible, or at least a part time occupation.

By focussing on performing in the retirement community I’ve been able to create programs that affect these residents in the most meaningful and positive ways possible. I’ve been able to invest the time to prepare the songs that are the most meaningful to them, the songs they loved when they were the most invested in the music that would become “their music”, and build programs that accompanied these songs with anecdotes, trivia, history, and inspirational stories that make the music, and their memories, that much more meaningful.

In the time that I’ve been focussed on performing in the retirement community over thirty five years ago, I’ve gone from where it would not be unusual to have people in my audience that were born in the 1800’s, who would want to hear songs like “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”, “I Love You Truly”, and “Down By The Old Mill Stream” (perhaps not my personal favorites, but to hear someone say “My husband sang that song to me at our wedding” or share other important memories made me so glad I took the time to learn them!), into the “Greatest Generation” with the music of the ’30’s and ’40’s, and now performing music of the ’50’s and into the ’60’s for the silent generation and older baby boomers.

I could never have served my audiences at the level I’ve been able to if I hadn’t been appropriately compensated so I didn’t have to work another job for my income in order to continue serving these folks.

So what we’re talking about here is not performing at a retirement home once in a while and playing songs that I happen to know and am personally interested in, and that my audience isn’t particularly tied to.

What it is actually is creating a program with music the audience knows and loves, that can be performed at a professional level, along with background info that draws them in. Additionally, there’s the demand of being able to perform, in some cases, monthly or bi-weekly and not repeating myself so much that the audience gets oversaturated. It takes a lot of work to curate a professional program for this niche market and those doing that at a professional level deserve to be compensated accordingly.

The Corporate Structure

I think there is an area of confusion for some people, especially those that aren’t “virtue signaling” but are sincerely concerned about the welfare of these residents, but just don’t have a great understanding of how things work. That is, they mistakenly think they’re taking something away from the people in the audience, the seniors they’re playing for.

In reality, we’re not receiving anything from them, well not directly anyway. The residents in these facilities are paying, or have paid, to live at the facility. They are not charged for the entertainment we’re providing. The corporate entity that owns the facility (in many cases, huge corporate structures) take their money and provide housing and care for them. There is a recreation/entertainment budget allotted to the Activities Department and entertainers are paid from that. So the residents are not impacted by what we’re paid other than the enjoyment they receive from our programs.

With the scientific research that’s been done illuminating the benefits of live music it could be argued that our live performances are the best investment for activities in the senior community!

For the sake of perspective, some of the larger of these senior living corporations had a total revenue in excess of 3 billion dollars in 2023. The funding for life enrichment is budgeted into the cost of living in these facilities along with all other expenses, and the people running these facilities, from the upper management to the Life Enrichment Directors are well aware of the value that live music provides for their residents.

Now, there are facilities that are not tied into huge corporate structures and may be running on budgets so tight that they need to utilize volunteers for entertainment, and I’m happy to lend my support for those facilities, but those are the minority. Personally, I would encourage those that want to volunteer to consider those facilities first.

I’m sure it’s obvious that the meals in these facilities are not provided by people that pop in once in a while with whatever leftovers they happen to have that they can donate. The food is prepared by chefs and staff that have been trained to supply healthy meals that fit the nutrition and medical needs of the residents. These professionals are paid appropriately for what they provide. Likewise doctors, nurses, and other staff are compensated for providing the appropriate services for these residents. Maintenance staff, from the most highly trained technicians to the untrained helpers are compensated as are the lawn care professionals that are contracted to keep up the grounds. Why would something as important and significant as life enrichment be disregarded?

Consider that many musicians that have honed their craft to a professional level, if they had chosen to invest their time in other pursuits, could have invested the same time to become a doctor AND a lawyer!!

So hopefully this has helped provide a little perspective if you’re facing criticism or doubt for wanting to use your talents to enrich the lives of those living in the retirement community, or if you’re feeling a little self conscious about it. Remember, the more you can do the more people you can reach and the more you can impact their lives, and being compensated for your hard work can be the path to you better serving those that are yearning for what you have to contribute.

It amuses me that some people might view using one’s musical ability to sell more alcohol for the owners down at the local watering hole and perhaps occasionally give musical leftovers to the retirement community, or working a “regular job”, putting money in the pockets of those business owners, and fitting in a retirement gig once in a while, as more virtuous than someone that devotes their musical efforts to these dear souls nearing the end of their time on earth stuck in these facilities. But I just want to encourage anyone that’s hearing that kind on noise to disregard it and keep moving forward to enrich the souls and lift the spirits of the folks that need it.

Let me know your thoughts or if you have any questions. I’ll be back in touch soon, and in the meantime,

All the best!!

RA