Aphasia is a neurological disorder typically caused by a stroke or traumatic brain injury that impairs talking, reading and writing. However, for some stroke survivors, singing proves easier than speaking. “Because music is largely mediated by the undamaged hemispheres of the brain of people with aphasia, they can sing and are often fluent while singing,” explains Karen McFeeters Leary in an email. Leary is a speech and language pathologist and the founder and director of the Aphasia Choir, an ensemble of 21 local stroke and TBI survivors along with spouses, caregivers, University of Vermont speech-language pathology students, UVM Medical Center employees and community volunteers. The singers lift their voices on Saturday in a fifth-anniversary concert of 1960s and ’70s pop songs.
