Songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1949 musical 'South Pacific' are unforgettable, even for a lot of people with Alzheimer's Disease.

This is what English oboist Andrew Knights has discovered after several years of conducting musical therapy classes for people with Alzheimer's Disease in the south of England.

Mr. Knights was in Bermuda to perform in the Bermuda Festival Chamber Orchestra concert as part of the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts.

While here, he conducted two musical therapy sessions with patients in the Alzheimer's unit at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

"This was the first time I ever tried to do this work outside the culture of the South of England," said Mr. Knights who is from Hampshire, England. "I wanted to see if it would have the same effect with different people living in a different country."

He said it was pretty clear from the sessions at the King Edward that the locale made little difference.

"They liked the same music," he said. "We played music they would have known from their youth including music from popular musicals such as 'South Pacific' and 'My Fair Lady'.

"They knew the words to all the songs. They particularly liked the song 'I'm Going to Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair'.

"This is a terrible illness that stops so many things from happening. But music seems to help. That is why I think it is such a good thing."

Mr. Knights, a music professor at the University of Southampton, wrote a paper in 2006 about the benefits of music for Alzheimer's patients for the International Psycho-Geriatrics Journal.

It was titled 'Keep Music Alive – The Alleviation of Apathy in Dementia Sufferers'.

"I feel I have learned more about the importance of melody and rhythm than I ever learned studying in music college and playing in an orchestra," said Mr. Knights.

Scientific studies have shown that the same parts of the brain that are activated when people play music or sing, are also activated for the listener.

"The important thing is the mental cognition," he said. "When they are singing they are recalling all those words from a memory bank.

Studies have further shown that the same intense brain activity goes on whether the person does or does not have dementia.

Mr. Knights was an oboist for 20 years. He got into musical therapy when he lost his job with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra due to budget cuts.

"I found I didn't have anything to do," he said.

"First of all the County Council in the South of England asked me if I knew anyone who worked with old people," he said. "I didn't.

"A lot of musicians work with youngsters in school all the time, but we haven't thought about working with people at the end of life. It was a new thing for me."

So he took on the job of going to different nursing homes in Hampshire to conduct musical therapy sessions. He now sometimes drives over 800 miles in a week, because there are very few other people nearby who do what he does.

"I started very carefully," he said. "I hadn't really met anyone with Alzheimer's before. I soon found myself working with many people like that."

He was nervous at first, but he quickly noticed that people with dementia showed little outward difference.

"As soon as I put music on they behaved as if there was nothing wrong with them," he said. "They would dance and join in."

He said people often ask him if he just does therapy for people with a musical background.

"That isn't the case," he said. "All of us have music that was important to us."

The therapy sessions at the hospital came about because of a The Royal Gazette newspaper article about Alzheimer's published a few weeks ago.

"My brother, Charles, works here for the Menuhin Foundation," said Mr. Knights. "He was playing in the concert and asked me to come down and play in it also.

"When he read the article about Liz Stewart, a former piano player who could no longer play the piano because of Alzheimer's, he was moved.

"He suggested that when I came to Bermuda I do some musical therapy with people here."

The idea was strongly supported by the Bermuda Festival.

"While the festival is going on you have all these people who aren't able to leave their hospital unit.

"It is nice to do something that allows them to feel a part of the festival even if it is in a small way."

People in England sometimes refer to Mr. Knights as "the Pied Piper".

"There is a quality to the sound of an oboe which is very expressive and direct," he said. "When I am playing, 'Ave Maria', in front of someone, it is like I am stroking them."

Due to his influence, the University of Southampton, where he teaches, now includes a 'music in care' module in the music degree programme.

Students there have also formed a large volunteer group to help bring music to older people in the community.

For more information, contact Mr. Knights at a.knightsoboe@btinternet.com.