Jeanne Kelly

Jeanne Kelly is founder and executive director of Encore Creativity for Older Adults, dedicated to providing an excellent, accessible, and sustainable artistic environment for adults over 55 years of age at all levels. Encore is the largest and fastest growing choral program for older adults in the country with chorales throughout the Washington, D.C. area and beyond. Kelly was the first director of Levine School of Music, Arlington Campus, where she had more than 700 students from eighteen months to 97 years of age. She created the Big Band, Metropolitan Wind Symphony and the New Horizons Band for older adults, ensembles which regularly performed at major Washington, D.C. venues and created three senior singers’ chorales for the three year study, “Creative and Aging: the Impact of Professionally Conducted Cultural Programs on Older Adults.” The 120 participating singers, with an average age of 80, showed improved health, fewer doctor visits, less medication, fewer falls, higher morale and reduced risk factors for long-term care.  Kelly earned an undergraduate degree in voice performance and piano from the University of Findlay and a master’s degree in voice performance from the Peabody Conservatory. She made her professional operatic debut with the Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center and has performed major roles with many American opera companies and sung with many symphonies, festivals and chamber groups. She was director of the Women’s Glee Club at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD from 1987 to 1995 and has served on the faculties of the Baltimore School for the Arts and Hood College in Frederick, MD, and conducted workshops for the Smithsonian Institution.