Jeanie Brindley-Barnett

Jeanie Brindley-Barnett is a respected pioneer and leader in the field of arts and aging. She was a presenter, mentor, and development chair of curriculum with ArtSage, whose work was supported in a three-year Minnesota State Arts Board Professional Development Initiative program, where she mentored professional teaching artists in the best practices of working with older adults, and consulted with arts organizations in the evaluation of program design and structure for the aging population. Jeanie’s work with older adults is included as a “master model” within the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA) “Online Artist Training in Arts and Aging” program. She co-presented for the webinar launch of NCCA’s Online Artist Training, and has presented at national conferences of the NCCA, The National Guild for Community Arts Education, Chorus America, American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and at Minnesota statewide conferences for ACDA, ArtSage’s Midwest Arts and Aging, Minnesota Statewide Activity Professionals (MN SWAP), Very Special Arts (VSA), Meeting of the Minds dementia conference, and as keynote speaker for the Caregivers Annual Expo in Rochester, Minnesota.

In 1999, Jeanie joined the voice faculty of MacPhail Center for Music, currently the largest community music school in the United States. In 2005, she created and co-founded MacPhail Music for Life™, a music program for adults 55 and older. MMFL™ has a roster of 12 professional teaching artists who serve 1,500 older adults engaged in over 80 weekly class offerings at MacPhail in Minneapolis, and at 40 adult residences and community centers throughout the Twin Cities area. In 2016, Jeanie designed and conducted the first MMFL™ online streamed distance-learning sessions for Sing for Life choruses with two rural Minnesota community partnerships.

Jeanie is the founding music director of Giving Voice Chorus, a chorus for those with dementia and their care partners. She played a major role in bringing together the strategic alliance between MacPhail and Giving Voice Initiative (GVI) and remains the music director of three Giving Voice Choruses in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Additionally, Jeanie serves as a mentor and consultant for best practices in adult music education based on her expertise of creating community choruses for older adults. Brindley-Barnett received her bachelor’s degree in music education and master’s in vocal performance from Florida State University.