What if dementia could tell its own story—from the inside out? Could music help us feel what it’s like to live with dementia—and bridge the gap between scientific understanding and human experience?

Through a blend of music, theater, and artificial intelligence, Fragments of Memories follows one man’s journey through normal aging, Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Created by İdil Özkan, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute and Hellman Artist in Residence at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, the piece draws on lived experience and scientific insight to explore how memory shapes identity. Performed by a live chamber ensemble and actors, the piece translates the symptoms of these conditions into sound, inviting the audience not only to understand but to feel how memory and identity unravel. Fragments of Memories bridges art and science, inviting audiences to experience the landscape of aging and dementia.

The premiere takes place Wednesday, June 18, 2025, at 6 p.m. at the San Francisco Community Music Center, featuring actors Geoff Hoyle and Melinda Matice and musicians:

• Atlantic Fellow Aaron Colverson, PhD (UCSF) – Violin 1
• Jessica Folson (SFCM) – Violin 2
• Josh Choi (SFCM) – Viola
• Hung-Yu Lin (SFCM) – Violoncello
• Kaan Kumru (UCSF) – Clarinet
• Atlantic Fellow Daniel Macri (UCSF) – Synthesizer
• Atlantic Fellow İdil Özkan, MA (UCSF) – Piano

Following the performance, a panel conversation with Özkan and UCSF neurologists and faculty members Kate Rankin, PhD, and Bruce Miller, MD, as well as Claire Day (Alzheimer’s Association) and Jary Larsen, PhD, (AFTD Board Member), offers an opportunity to collectively reflect on memory, identity, and what it means to remain human in the face of loss.