[Ron Spitzer playing bass and singing “Television Rules” with Tot Rocket]
Ron Spitzer (interview): “I’ve always been a musician, either playing or singing. Ever since I was a child, I sang. It’s been my identity, my self-identity, my whole life. Everything has been about music.”
[Ron Spitzer singing “Swan Song on Broadway” with Western Eyes]
Ron Spitzer (interview): “I was in many bands continuing forward, up until my stroke.”
[Ron walking to the store to buy milk]
Ron Spitzer (interview): “After after being a, stroke survivor for, you know, a certain number of years. I mean, that is your entire focus. Getting better, doing the therapies, becoming more independent.”
Ron Spitzer (interview): “At Beth Israel, which was is now Mount Sinai, and they had a speech therapy program going on there for stroke survivors that I got involved with, which involved singing on a weekly basis and, being a musician for my entire life this was perfect for me because after my stroke, I realized I had lost my musical sensibility.”
[Ron at home]
Ron Spitzer (interview): “It’s helped me enormously. Not only in the in the singing that I’ve done with this group, and so forth, but just in speaking. I mean, I did a lot of whispering iImmediately after my stroke. And now I’ve found my voice quite literally.”
[Ron walking to the stroke choir practice]
[Stroke choir and staff singing]
Jessica Hariwijaya (interview): “I think music is a remarkable tool for stroke recovery because it is widely studied that music can stimulate a widespread activation across multiple areas of the brain. That is why we often find that patients, stroke patients who have, lost their ability to speak because of their aphasia. They’re able to sing fluently, which is incredible.”
[Jessica at the stroke choir practice]
[Stroke choir participants and Zoom participants]
[Stroke choir singing “All You Need Is Love”]
Ron Spitzer (interview): “I speak more clearly. I feel more confident that I will be able to get out what I want to say.”
[Stroke choir singing “Can’t Help Falling in Love”]
Ron Spitzer (interview): “I’m not back to where I was before the stroke, and I accept the fact that I never will be. But you know, every day I’m still improving, even though I’m not getting back to where I was. And that’s true on physical levels, cognitive levels, emotional levels. And you just have to keep aware and appreciate where you are in the moment. The singing aspect is very instrumental. Pun intended. Very instrumental in being a motivation to keep going and improve. And be aware of improvements as well.”
[Ron at the end of the choir practice]
[Ron leaving the choir practice]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.