Shorewood senior and 6-year-old play piano duet at retirement community

Timbers of Shorewood resident Paula Polechla, 79, and Hank Vasel, age 6, performed a duet on June 4 at the Shorewood rental retirement community.

Polechla and Hank were two of nine piano students who presented an intergenerational piano recital in The Timbers ballroom.

All nine students take lessons from Stacy Jager of Lockport, who formerly taught a “Music and Movement” class at The Timbers of Shorewood. They ranged in age from 6 to 79.

“Music brings people together,” Stacy Jager said in a news release from The Timbers of Shorewood. “It is universal. Music speaks what words cannot fully express.”

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Polechla and Hank performed an original piece, “Young at Heart,” that Jager “in honor of the intergenerational theme of the piano recital,” Jager said in the release.

Jager has a music therapy degree specializing in piano from Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The Timbers said. Jager said in the release that she she currently teaches piano in her home, although she teach The Timbers seniors onsite.

Students young and old are very motivated with their lessons, Jager said in the release.

“My younger students have more agile fingers, and my oldest students have past experiences and can pick up learning more quickly,” Jager said in the release.

According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “adult and children musicians exhibited higher cognitive flexibility than non-musicians.” When compared to their non-musician peers, adult musicians had “more proficient working memory” and child musicians had faster processing speeds, Harvard Graduate School of Education said.

John Hopkins Medicine said, “music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness and memory.”

Polechla said in the release that her grandmother taught her to play piano when she was approximately 10 years old.

“After so many years, I was very happy to take it up again with Stacy when I moved to the Timbers,” Polechla said in the release.

Songs the students played included “America the Beautiful,” “Home on the Range,” “Morning has Broken” and “The Marines’ Hymn,” The Timbers said.

Amy Odell, director of activities at The Timbers of Shorewood, said in the release that it was great to see “all the smiles in the room.”

“To have Paula Polechla, 79, and Hank, 6, play a fun duet was the perfect piece to end the recital,” Odell said in the release. “It was very moving.”

For information, call The Timbers of Shorewood at 815-609-0669 or visit timbersofshorewood.com.