On a special edition of edition of Growing Bolder, we celebrate the power of music and its potential to not only improve your life in countless ways but also to protect your brain. The men and women you’ll meet in this episode will show how music defines our past and can enhance our future.

Learn how music not only brings lifelong enjoyment, it just may improve your health. And don’t just be content to listen to music! A professional musician offers encouragement for everyone to pick up an instrument and reap the benefits of “joyous self-expression” through the beauty of making music.

On this episode of Growing Bolder, you’ll meet Tommy Johnson, whose lighting-fast keyboard skills has made him an Internet star; Allee Willis, a Grammy Award-winning songwriter who turned her unique point-of-view toward a 91-year-old drummer; and Don Cupo, who went back to college in his 40s after losing his job in the recession and finally pursued a lifelong goal: joining the marching band.