Project Description: Echos-Playlist at Caritas Socialis
Echos-Playlist is a pilot project at Caritas Socialis that examines how biographically meaningful music influences the emotional experience and physiological responses of people living with dementia. The project uses mixed-methods approaches to understand how personally relevant music evokes emotional resonance, facilitates connection, and enhances quality of life in daily care settings.
Background and Rationale
Music that has played an important role in a person’s life can trigger strong emotional memories even in advanced stages of dementia. Such songs and pieces—linked to identity, biography, or cultural experiences—often provide access to emotions and memories that are no longer reachable verbally. The Echos-Playlist project explores these responses in a pragmatic, real-life setting by embedding biographical music into a curated concert.
Project Design
At the heart of the project is the “Echos-Playlist Concert,” which presents musical works connected to various European cities and interweaves them with individually selected biographical music inserts. These personal music pieces are chosen together with the day center guests based on their musical biographies. To investigate the impact of these musical moments, the project employs a mixed-methods research design:
Physiological Measurement
Day center guests participating in the concert wear HRV sensors (Heart Rate Variability). HRV serves as an indicator of emotional activation, stress regulation, and autonomic responses. The aim is to determine whether biographically meaningful music elicits measurable physiological changes.
Qualitative Interviews & Group Discussions
People with dementia (day center guests), relatives, and—if applicable—day center staff reflect on emotional experiences, spontaneous reactions, and meaningful moments during the concert.
Arts-Based Research Elements
Short creative activities—such as small songwriting components or a photographic memory album—serve both as research material and as forms of expression and identity support for the participants.
Aims and Research Questions
The project pursues two central aims: (1) To examine whether and how biographically meaningful music elicits emotional and physiological responses—particularly HRV changes—in people with dementia and (2) To develop and evaluate an arts-based, person-centered approach to biographical music work with people with dementia in order to support their meaningful participation in research processes.
Research Questions
Research Question 1: Do people with dementia experience increased wellbeing and engagement during a concert setting, particularly when listening to biographically relevant music?
Research Question 2: What are the challenges and the feasibility of using non-invasive physiological measurements (Heart Rate Variability; HRV) with people living with dementia to assess emotional responses during a live concert?
Expected Impact
The project aims to:
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Generate new insights into the emotional and physiological effects of personally meaningful music on people with dementia.
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Combine innovative methodological approaches that integrate physiological data, qualitative perspectives, and arts-based forms of expression.
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Provide practical implications for care settings, demonstrating how personalized music can be embedded into routines, events, and therapeutic contexts.
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Foster wellbeing and social connectedness among residents, relatives, and staff.
Concert Date: February 2, 2026, 15:00-16:00
Collaborators
The project is conducted in collaboration with the Caritas Socialis Day Center in Vienna's 3rd district. CS day centers offer older and chronically ill adults a daytime community as well as activation and therapeutic programmes.
CS Day Center (Oberzellergasse 1, 1030 Vienna)
Head of the Day Center: Marianne Buchegger
Another collaboration partner is Musethica.
Musethica contributes sessions as part of the project “1000+ Concerts: Innovating Higher Music Education through Social Inclusion,” co-financed by the European Union. One concert will take place at the day center (March 9, 2026) during which physiological measurements will also be taken as a control condition in the Echoes-Playlist project.
Contact for Musethica coordination in Austria and at mdw: Bernhard Kurz
Project Lead
Ass.-Prof. Elsa Campbell, PhD
Project Support
Scientific
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Lily Hitelman – student assistant; screenings, interviews
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Kathrin Baumeister – interviews
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Franz Tauschek – interviews
Musicians
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Denise Berger
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Tamara Feichtinger
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Johanna Fersterer
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Sophie Gugler
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Katharina Helperstorfer
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Sofie Himmelbauer
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Katharina Kurz
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Fiona Maringer
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Julie Nass-Dambach
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Franz Tauschek
Photography
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Stephan Polzer
AV / Sound Support
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Alexander Simeonov
Project Duration
March 2025 – September 2026
Funding
Stadt Wien Kultur [MA 7 Science Fund] (€9,000)
Andreas Tobias Kind Foundation (€3,000)
Accepted Abstracts / Presentations
A paper presentation has been accepted at the 18th World Congress of Music Therapy in Bologna in Bologna, Italy (July 2026) with the title "The Echoes Playlist: A biographically-informed concert for people with dementia and their caregivers"
Contact details
Metternichgasse 12/II, 1030 Vienna
+43 1 71155 3953