Karen is the founder and director of The Aphasia Choir of Vermont.
The Aphasia Choir is comprised of brain injury survivors who have expressive aphasia (difficulty talking or using language) as well as spouses/caregivers, UVM speech-language pathology students, and UVM Medical Center employees who provide assistance. Because music is largely mediated by the undamaged hemispheres of the brains of people with aphasia, they can sing and are often fluent while singing even if they have severe difficulty speaking or are nonverbal.
Bringing these individuals together in song enables them to experience freedom of expression in a context that fosters social connections and a sense of belonging.
In honor of National Aphasia Awareness Month, the Aphasia Choir annually performs a free public concert in June. Concert audiences have grown since the choir’s inception in 2014, and attendees have used words and phrases such as “amazing” and “awe-inspiring” to describe what they’ve witnessed. Educational information is provided in order to raise aphasia awareness. In 2020, the American Stroke Association chose the Aphasia Choir of Vermont as the winner of their Stroke Hero Award for Outstanding Group.
For more information or to inquire about you or a loved one joining the choir, please contact Karen McFeeters Leary, Aphasia Choir founder & director, at (802) 288-9777 or kmcfeeters@aol.com.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the Aphasia Choir, please make a check out to the UVM Medical Center and write “Aphasia Choir” on the memo line. Please mail it to Karen at P.O. Box 1132, Milton, VT 05468. Thank you!
You can also purchase Karen’s new CD, Bonfire, for which all proceeds will benefit the choir. THANK YOU!