Sisters, 12 and 9, Play Piano for People Living With Dementia in Hobart

Min Luo, 12, and her sister Fei Shan, nine, were playing piano for a family friend with dementia when they noticed something. When the music started, he changed.¹

According to Min, their friend was usually a bit stressed when they visited. “But when we started playing, he would usually sit down, and sometimes he would tap his hand in time with the rhythm or hum along,” she told ABC News.¹

The girls decided other people with dementia might enjoy the same thing. So they began visiting aged care facilities to play for the residents.¹

An afternoon at Korongee

One of those performances was an afternoon concert at Korongee Dementia Village in Hobart’s northern suburbs. ABC reported that some residents tapped their feet in time, and others nodded along.¹

Korongee opened in July 2020 as a village for people living with dementia. Live music is already part of life there, with activities that include concerts, singing and drumming.²³

Among the audience was Nick Dickens, 75, a former rock ‘n’ roll guitarist. He lives with frontotemporal and vascular dementia, which affect his mood and mobility rather than his memory. He praised the sisters’ talent, and praise from a former rock ‘n’ roll guitarist counts for something.¹

He also described what the music does for him. “The old stress goes out the window … it just makes you feel alive,” he told ABC.¹

Fei put it simply. “Music is like a language that mostly everyone can understand,” she said.¹

Why music can still get through

The responses described so far are what the sisters and residents noticed, like tapping, humming and a resident’s own words. But there is some science behind why music can reach people with dementia.

Associate Professor Alison Canty of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre told ABC that the part of the brain responsible for musical memory is quite resilient as dementia progresses. Researchers don’t know why.¹

Canty said music can release dopamine, a brain chemical that can lift mood and ease anxiety and stress. She added that even people who have not spoken for some time may respond to a piece of music they recognize.¹

“It’s kind of another way in, to start interacting and communicating with somebody who’s living with dementia,” she said.¹

That matters to a lot of families. ABC reports that dementia was named the leading cause of death in Australia in 2025, and that almost 1.1 million people are predicted to have it by 2065.¹

What comes next

The sisters plan to hold a concert to raise money for dementia research.¹