About:
The Beat Goes On, is a community choir project that aims to grow the Town-Gown relationship between the Virginia Tech community and older adults population in Blacksburg, Virginia, with a big data twist. The Beat Goes On started in Fall 2023 with a start-up grant from the Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology.
This choir is specifically designed to invite persons experiencing cognitive change (usually due to a form of dementia) and their caregivers to engage in choir singing together with students, faculty and staff from VT, along with other members of the community. Singing in a choir has a wide range of physiological benefits, such as improving breathing, posture and muscle regulating heart rate, supporting a healthy immune system, helping symptoms of some chronic diseases and overall improving status of someone’s physical health.
Have any other questions or comments? Email joculligan@vt.edu.
2025-2026 Season
Come sing and dance with us starting September 4th! Rehearsals are from 5:30 to 7pm in CID (185 Kent Street, Blacksburg VA). We have snacks for about 30 minutes and then rehearse for the remaining 60 minutes. No audition is required – this community choir is open to all! If you are interested in joining, please scan the QR code to the left. Below are our current rehearsal dates:
September 4 & 18
October 2, 16 & 30
November 13 & 20
January 22
February 5, 19 & 26
March 12, 19 & 26
April 2, 9 & 16
Interested in learning more about our choir? Check out the videos and articles below.
News:
The Beat Goes On earns 2025 Best Practice Award from the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services and the Commonwealth Council on Aging! Read more about it here!
Rehearsal Schedule/Information
Rehearsals will include about 30 minutes of social time followed by about 60 minutes of singing rehearsal. Setlist for last season included multi-genre songs that are songs about music! Below is our setlist from last season on Spotify.