November 5, 2025 • 29 mins
What if the dream you set aside is still waiting patiently for you? In this inspiring episode of Aging with Purpose and Passion, we explore reinvention after 50 with singer, songwriter, and vocal coach Barbara Lewis, whose story is a masterclass in resilience, creativity and healing. From early acclaim to life’s toughest pauses, Barbara shows how women over 50 can reignite passion, rediscover purpose, and reclaim joy through the power of music and midlife transformation. Whether you’re seeking growth, self-discovery or a nudge to finally find your voice again, this conversation reminds you—it’s never too late to rise.
Barbara traces her journey from rigorous opera training and early success to a bold choice: walking away from roles that didn’t fit and creating her own truth through original music. That decision—equal parts courage and conviction—sparked a lifelong mission to help others uncover their voices. Her story weaves through 9/11 in New York, losing her husband, and finding her way back to song through teaching, mindfulness, and daily creative rituals.
We talk about how singing reconnects us to body, mind, and spirit. You’ll learn why breath is the most powerful form of emotional reguation, how sound changes your mood, and why community and conndection are essential to staying vibrant as we age. Barbara shares simple tools—gratitude, humming, morning pages, and movement—to restore confidence and joy, one note at a time.
If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s too late to begin again, this episode answers with a resounding no. The point of power is now.
✨ Listen for:
- Practical ways to rebuild confidence and creativity
- How to use music and mindfulness to heal
- Why perfection is the enemy of joy
- Daily actions to reignite your spark after 50
🎧 If this conversation moves you:
Follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review to help others find Aging with Purpose and Passion.
Resources
For a similar stories on aging and creativity, check episode 120 and 127 and you might also enjoy Wellness Wednesdays hosted by gerontologist Sally Duplantier. These webinars feature topics about healthy aging. Visit MyZingLife.com to learn more.
Barbara Lewis – Singer, Songwriter & Vocal Coach
🌐 barbaralewis.com
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Beverley Glazer – Transformation Coach & Host of Aging with Purpose and Passion
📧 Bev@reinventImpossible.com
| 🌐 reinventImpossible.com
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| 👥 Women Over 50 Rock
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🎁 BONUS: Take your first step to clarity, courage and momentum. Your free checklist: → From Stuck to Unstoppable – is here.
https://reinvent-impossible.aweb.page/from-stuck-to-unstoppable
Have feedback or a powerful story that's worth telling? Contact us at info@Reinventimpossible.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:06):
Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion, the
podcast designed to inspire yourgreatness and thrive through
life.
Get ready to conquer yourfears.
Here's your host,psychotherapist, coach, and
empowerment expert, BeverleyGlazer.
Beverley Glazer (00:32):
What if the dream you set aside years ago
was waiting for you to claim?
Welcome to Aging with Purposeand Passion.
I'm Beverley Glazer, atransition coach and catalyst
for women who are ready to raisethe bar in their own lives.
And you can find me onreadventimpossible.com.
(00:53):
Barbara Lewis is a giftedsinger, a songwriter, a vocal
coach, whose voice has beencompared to Anne Murray and Judy
Collins.
She has performed with Junonominated musicians, appeared on
PBS, and sung for thousands atthe International AIDS
(01:15):
Conference.
But what sets Barbara Lewisapart from the others is how she
inspires us to find our voicesand sing with joy in later life.
But this isn't just a storyabout music, it's about courage,
it's about creativity, and it'sabout the power of returning to
(01:38):
living your dreams.
Welcome, Barbara.
Barbara Lewis (01:41):
Thank you, Beverley.
It's a great pleasure to behere.
Beverley Glazer (01:45):
Barbara, you started singing just as a child,
seven years old.
Um, I mean, I sang as a child.
I, you know, children sing.
What was your life like as achild and a singer?
I mean, most children want tobe a star somewhere, a singer, a
dancer.
(02:05):
Who was who was Barbara Lewisat seven years old?
Barbara Lewis (02:12):
Seven's a long time ago.
72 now.
Trying to get back to seven.
Um, I had I was brought up inin an unusual religion,
Christian science.
And we were taught that we werespiritual beings.
And I think I had back when Iwas seven, I'm sure my mom had
something to do with this.
(02:32):
I think she said to me, youknow, you're going to express
beauty and you're going to healpeople.
And I think that that was partof my desire as a singer was to
be a healer in some way.
I didn't know really what thatmeant, but I did feel a lot of
passion as a young singer.
And so that was my beginning.
(02:52):
And actually, my real beginningwas when I uh booked myself for
a competition without myparents knowing when I was 11.
And I sang on this big stagewith a lot of other people.
But at one point I was put onthere to sing uh Tammy by myself
as a soloist.
And I think my mom and dad wereshocked to see me singing by
(03:15):
myself.
And I won that competition.
So for me, that was kind of thebeginning.
I said to myself, one day I'mgoing to be a great singer.
That was the beginning.
So did that shape yourconfidence?
I'm sure it did.
Oh, yes.
And and I'm I'm sure that my mymom, who was very, very
supportive, and my dad, I'm surethat they gave me a lot of
(03:36):
confidence too.
But you know, it took many,many years for me to to gather
confidence.
And uh I went through a lot ofvery difficult times in my life,
as most of us do.
Beverley Glazer (03:50):
But you were drawn to classical music, and
not everybody is.
So what drew you to that?
Barbara Lewis (03:58):
Well, I think it I I I loved uh Maureen
Forrester.
I loved her voice, I loved howshe expressed herself.
Uh I love Leonine Price.
I heard a lot of this music uhwhen I was a little girl, and I
loved the the passion that camethrough a voice, the ability to
sing in a wide, wide range,which gave you a lot of
(04:19):
opportunity to have differentcolors, emotional colors.
And that was very, veryattractive to me to be able to
uh ooze these uh or or seducemyself and others with uh the
beauty of vocal colors.
So that was my first passion.
Beverley Glazer (04:36):
But operatic training, that's a whole
different thing.
Barbara Lewis (04:41):
Yeah, operatic training.
It's you're you really are anathlete, a vocal athlete.
And I and I loved, I loved thethe music.
I didn't love the business.
I also didn't love having tosing about victimized women all
the time.
And in the end, that's whattook me away from singing
operatic music.
And I kind of turned a cornerand I decided that I would write
(05:03):
my own music and sing what Ihad to say about life.
I felt that uh the the beautyof operatic music was that you
you had to be such a wonderfulsinger to do it well.
But the drawback was that youwere singing about things from
hundreds of years before.
This was not modern women.
I did not want to be anold-fashioned woman.
(05:24):
I wanted to say things to acurrent audience.
So I started to write my ownmusic.
Beverley Glazer (05:29):
That's huge.
I mean, let's face it, that'shuge.
To just switch out because youwere also invited to sing in an
operatic company in Germany andyou walked away from that.
Barbara Lewis (05:40):
Yes, I did.
Yeah.
And it's it was huge for me,yes, but I think it was hugely
disappointing for the manypeople who got me, helped to get
me to that point.
Because you don't do that byyourself, especially in opera,
but also in pop.
You know, you have a team ofpeople who help you to to get to
that place.
And and getting there and thensaying no was it was very hard
(06:04):
to to say no and say, look, thisis my truth, this is my life,
and I'm sorry, but I'm goinganother direction.
It was very hard on people.
My mom was disappointed, andcertainly my teachers, my
singing teachers.
Beverley Glazer (06:18):
Sure.
It was hard.
It had to be hard.
Yeah.
And then you had to start andretrain your voice because now,
yeah, how did you do that?
Barbara Lewis (06:29):
Um, you know, I I thought mistakenly, it turns
out, I thought that I would beable to retrain to a degree and
then sing with the voice that Ihad developed over many years,
my own new music.
So I wrote a lot for myself.
I wrote several shows, um alloriginal material, and I sang
(06:50):
it, and then some of those didvery well.
But you know, I still was seenas a classical musician, still a
classical soprano.
So I would say that it's been awhole life's journey, even to
this point, where I've still amretraining and retraining my
voice.
I I think I'm now at 72 at mymost retrained.
(07:15):
I can now sing the wide range,but I can also sing in the more
pop style.
And that's taken many, manyyears.
What a journey it's been.
What an adventure.
And so many difficulties to togo through to get to that point.
Beverley Glazer (07:31):
Yes.
And there was a point alsowhere you just couldn't sing.
Barbara Lewis (07:37):
Yeah, that's that happened.
Um first of all, my husband andI, my first husband, I'm
remarried and very happy.
My my first husband, uh, whom Iloved so deeply.
We were like one person in away.
We were in New York at the timethat the trade towers came
down.
Actually, we were downtown uhwhen that happened.
(07:59):
And uh it's a long story, and Iwill shorten it.
Um, he was supposed to be inone of those trade towers.
And I was going downtown on abus, and uh, we saw the plane go
into the first one, and the busdriver who understood
immediately what was going on,pulled over.
He said, This somethingsomething terrible has happened.
The second plane went in and hesaid, Everybody off, this was
(08:20):
terrorism.
So I still didn't reallyunderstand what that was about.
And so I got off with all of mymusic equipment and suddenly
realized that Nick was supposedto be in one of those towers
having a meeting.
I stood on the corner of theroad uh shaking.
I tried to get my phone towork, but all of the cell phones
were down immediately.
(08:41):
And uh so I stood there withall my stuff, and I thought,
what do I do?
Uh I looked down the road, Ithought maybe I'll walk this
way, and I saw someone in thegreat distance waving like this
to me.
And Nick's appointment had beenchanged.
It was not in one of the tradetowers, so he was okay.
He met me and we walked uptownout of the smoke, out of the
(09:05):
debris, not knowing that behindus hundreds of body parts were
falling to the ground.
It was a very, very shockingtime.
So we left New York and uh itwas very, very hard.
He had to leave all of his workthat he'd worked up to to that
point, me too, totally had toleave it all behind.
Went back to Montreal and welived there for a couple of
(09:27):
years, and then suddenly hedied.
And that's for me, it was likethat was the end of my singing.
Uh, I said to my friends, uh,that's the end of men in my
life.
You know, I had a tremendousman, and uh I don't know what
I'll do now, but uh it's youknow, my life is totally
(09:48):
different.
Uh and it was.
But I I continued to teach.
I had been teaching, Icontinued to do that, and I
began over a couple of years tofeel a need again to express
real love.
I felt like a lot of the worldat that time, as it is now,
(10:08):
lacked real love.
I think so many people feltterribly, terribly hurt and
angry, as did I, uh, and in asense of great grief.
But I felt love amazingly,maybe it was my upbringing, my
mother my mother speaking to mefrom the grave.
I I felt this love inside, anduh I decided I would come back
(10:32):
to to singing in some way.
But then I met this wonderfulman with whom I'm married now,
and he said, Barbara, you gottasing.
So uh, you know, I I started tosing again.
I feel very, very fortunatethat uh uh I came back to it
because I have to tell you,Beverly, I'm sure you know this,
but singing, especially whenyou sing with others, it's it's
(10:57):
an inner healing for the body.
It wakes up, I mean you wouldknow this, it wakes up all of
those amazing feel-good hormonesin the body.
And so when you sing, you'reyou're in a way, you're you're
kind of creating a a wash ofhealing inside.
So for me, that's that's I Iteach that the great joy of
(11:19):
thing.
I sing about it in my in myshows, and I talk about it a
lot.
The joy of of singing and whatit does for us.
Beverley Glazer (11:29):
How could you just build that confidence again
from teaching and thenstopping?
I mean, it's huge to go back ona large stage or even in an
intimate venue and and expressyourself when you have all this
judgment.
People are looking and you'rejudging yourself.
(11:50):
Is my voice still good?
Yes.
How did you get your confidenceback?
Yes.
Barbara Lewis (11:55):
Um you know, I feel that inside we have a
universe of being to call on.
I think most of the time, ormuch of the time, we're not able
for one reason or another tocall on that.
But I think it during times ofgreat extremity, either we shut
down and we have to heal indifferent ways, or we say, I've
(12:19):
got to find that place insidethat will lift me up again.
And uh again, you know, maybeit was my upbringing, but also
it was friends, the the strengthof friends around me.
I had great, great friends,family members who uh gave me a
lot of encouragement.
I think we need a good supportstructure to to regain momentum
(12:41):
and equilibrium.
And I I was very lucky to havethat.
And I also felt that I had lovewelling up inside of me.
And I wanted to express it.
And for me, the best way toexpress love is is uh, if not
through friends and family, it'sthrough singing.
So that gave me a lot ofcourage to walk on the stage and
(13:03):
say, here I am, like it or not,I have something to say, and
I'm gonna say it.
And fortunately, uh manypeople, uh, enough people liked
what I was doing.
Beverley Glazer (13:15):
And today you coach adults to really do the
same, but they're notnecessarily singers.
These are people that love tosing.
Why did you choose that?
Barbara Lewis (13:28):
Well, you know, it's it's funny.
Uh, when I was quite young, uhliving in Vermont, lived on a
hilltop in Vermont, I loved itthere, with my husband,
Nicholas.
He was a writer, a deepthinker.
And I remember saying to him,you know, I think I'm gonna be a
late bloomer.
I'm sorry to tell you that.
(13:48):
I don't think I'm gonna come tofruition early in life.
And he said, Oh, whatever, youknow, be the artist you are, a
great freedom.
But I said to him, I think thatI'm gonna come to fruition
later in life, and I'm gonnahelp older people sing and love
music and love nature too.
And so I kind of felt that veryearly in my life.
(14:10):
I I can't explain it.
It's it's not that I'm a seer.
I just had that feeling, maybebecause it was taking me a long
time to get where I wanted toget.
So it wasn't strange for menow, later in life, to say my
specialty is going to be helpingpeople who are a bit older.
I usually I say, you know, 50plus.
(14:30):
On my on my uh YouTube channel,it's 40 plus, but that's not
old.
So 55, 60.
Some of my students are intheir 75, 80 range.
But I wanted to help olderpeople rediscover the joy of
making a wonderful sound, ofspeaking uh or or singing a wide
(14:50):
variety of emotions that wedon't often get the the pleasure
of speaking in our lives.
So many women are kind of shutdown when they get older.
They feel like they don't havemuch left or they live for their
children.
But when you sing, you reachinside and you find a wide
variety, a gamut of emotions.
And to be able to express that,even if your voice is not
(15:12):
great, I don't care.
I say to them, we don't care.
We're just here to to findwhat's inside and to let it come
out on the wings of a song.
So for me, it's a great, greatjoy.
I I work with people who usedto sing and are coming back to
it, and with those who alwayshad the dream to sing and now
they're gonna do it.
So for me, it's an adventure.
(15:33):
It's cathartic.
I love it.
Beverley Glazer (15:36):
Right.
What do you think is thebiggest stumbling block that you
see in um not just women, mentoo, when they think about their
voice?
What do you think holds themback?
Barbara Lewis (15:47):
Well, so many people say to me, I can't sing.
And I say, Why do you say that?
Well, when I was a kid at atschool, the school teacher said
to me, Everybody can sing exceptyou, Norma.
You don't have a voice.
And I always feel like, oh,what damage that teacher did.
(16:07):
It's so unfair.
So I say, Well, let's justleave that behind.
That's when you were a kid.
Just trust me for the next fewmonths, and let's see what we
can bring out of you.
Because if you can speak andyou have not damaged your your
hearing, you can sing.
I mean, when you get older, youlose hearing.
(16:28):
But even people, I I teach awonderful singer who who is
legally deaf.
And we have, she learned how tosing, and she sings
beautifully.
Claire Duchayneau, she's anamazing singer.
So, you know, I'd I I try toallow them to let go of these
very early childhood traumas andsay, let's try it now.
(16:50):
Now is the point of power.
Beverley Glazer (16:53):
Yes, it's true.
There's only now.
Yep.
And so you have to take thatstep.
If you want to do it, you haveto take that step and get out
there and just play do it.
Yeah, you do.
Yeah, it takes courage.
It sure does.
You've suffered grief, you'vesuffered loss, you've suffered
reinvention many, many times.
(17:14):
What keeps you grounded?
Barbara Lewis (17:18):
Well, I would say um friends and family, uh, the
love of friends and family andloving them.
But also, um, I love nature.
I have a little garden and Idream about that garden in the
winter, and and I plant it inthe winter, and in the spring I
begin to work in it, and allsummer I work on that garden.
(17:38):
And ah, the garden, like music,I think, gardens.
Well, you know, one of thosefame uh famous quotes from
Oliver Sachs, he talks abouttaking his neurologically
disabled clients and patients tothe botanical gardens in New
York City.
He says that that just walkingthrough those gardens was better
(18:01):
often than any drug that hecould give them.
So gardens, I don't know why,but they uplift us and they
certainly uplift me.
So that's one thing.
Well, music, you know, I get tosing a lot, I get to perform a
lot.
So I get a lot of sleep.
I think sleep's hugelyimportant.
We're finding that it is.
I'm very fortunate to be ableto eat well, you know.
(18:24):
All of these things cometogether as kind of a a tapestry
of well-being.
But I think music and natureare things that if you don't
have those in your life, they'reso easy to add.
Just to having a plant in inyour room can make a difference.
I was talking about imaginethis.
Oh, sure.
(18:45):
Okay.
Well, you know, I uh before Iwrote this uh or put together
this show called Imagine This, Iwent through during the the
period of COVID, the second yearof COVID, I went through
something I would call an innerdesert.
I just had nothing left togive, even though I had a lot of
commitments.
Uh I was I had a YouTubechannel that I was working on, I
(19:08):
was teaching, I was singingconcerts online, I was writing
music and writing about music.
I had a lot of commitments, andyet I felt not dead inside, but
but like I had no more ideas, Ihad no more juice.
And uh so I did what I havedone in the past when I've
really been in dire straits.
I I picked up some books, I'dread a lot of books, and there
(19:31):
were several books that really,really touched me.
And uh I did the exercises,morning exercises where you you
just write, write, write.
I think that was um JuliaCameron.
She wrote a book about being anartist, but for older people,
and I did some of her exercises.
Uh, there was another book thatI read that was uh Three Simple
(19:54):
Steps, I think it was called.
And I did those exercises whereyou just allow your yourself to
find out again what you'recurious about.
For me, curiosity had died, andthat's crucial.
Curiosity is crucial whenyou're older, I'm finding.
So over a period of about ninemonths, I worked on myself a lot
with books, uh, withmeditation, did a lot of
(20:18):
meditation.
And eventually I started torevive inside it.
It went from being a desert tobeing kind of a tropical
rainforest, a little out ofcontrol at times.
But I realized that there wasthere was a show there for older
people, not just singing.
I I love to sing, but I wantedalso to have a talk.
(20:39):
I wanted it to be a concerttalk.
So that's what imagine this is.
It's um it's a way of oftalking about creativity when
we're older.
It's coming back to creativity.
Uh, I sing beautiful music, Italk about what it is to be a
late bloomer.
I encourage people.
It's an encouragement of and asupport for creativity
(21:02):
throughout your whole life.
And I find, much to my joy andkind of surprise, that people
love this show.
Right now it's it's an houronly.
It could it could be a littlelonger, and I can shorten it,
but it's it's a solid hour ofmusic and talk about the joy of
creativity, of finding,refining, rediscovering uh the
(21:26):
creative energy inside.
And I suppose, in a way, my myhope is that people when they
leave the show will feel morealive inside and that they have
ideas.
At the last one I did inOttawa, a woman came to me and
she said, You know, Barbara, I'malmost a hundred.
And I said, My goodness, youdon't look a hundred.
(21:47):
She said, Well, I'm 96.
And she said, You know, you'veencouraged me.
I've always wanted to write.
And darn it, I'm gonna do it,even though I'm 96.
I have things to tell mygrandchildren.
I'm just gonna write.
That is the kind of responsethat I love from Imagine This.
And I've I've got bookings nowinto the new year, and I'll
(22:11):
travel a little bit.
My hope is to take it acrossCanada.
So I'm working on that.
And I love the show.
I love doing it, and I feelreally fortunate, very lucky to
still be singing.
Beverley Glazer (22:23):
Yes, and you're doing something good, it's
beyond singing and just going toa concert.
What I'm seeing is it's acombination of both singing and
therapy.
You're gonna walk out feelingreally good, knowing a little
bit about yourself and music.
What's better than that?
You're singing.
(22:44):
You know, what have you foundwhen you're teaching, and there
people are teaching and usingtheir voice, sometimes for the
first time in a long time?
What changes do you see inthem?
Barbara Lewis (22:59):
All sorts of changes.
Um people are amazed by theemotion that that comes up.
And I was speaking about thatearlier, that we don't in life
uh often have chances to emotein very uh in many subtle ways,
romantic ways as well.
I think when we're older, we'renot quite as romantic, don't
(23:22):
feel as sexual.
But through a song, you canexplore those feelings.
And so that's something Inotice in in older people that
they're finding, they'rere-finding feelings that they've
had.
They're they're rediscoveringthat that out of their beautiful
older bodies can come somethingthat delights other people as
(23:43):
well as themselves.
Uh, so I I love that notionthat you can rediscover things
that have been kind of dormantfor a long time.
And uh it's a a reliving, it'scoming alive in a in a new way.
I mean, none of us have everbeen in our 70s before.
When you get there, you go,holy moly, this is the first
(24:05):
time I've been 72.
And wow, this is like I didn'texpect this, the the the lines
and the wrinkles and the lack ofenergy and stuff.
But you still can feel so aliveif you find the roots to do so,
and singing is one of them.
Beverley Glazer (24:19):
Yeah.
What's one thing you'd like totell people just to find their
joy?
One encouraging thing.
Barbara Lewis (24:27):
I would say if you don't, if you don't have a
plant in your life, buy yourselfa beautiful plant.
One plant.
I found that I took one plantto a woman who was very down in
an old folks' home, and shecalled me the next day and she
said, Barbara, you brought mealive.
I love this plant.
And it wasn't just that onetime.
(24:49):
She called me week after weekand she said, I got to tell you
about my plant today.
So that's one thing.
Another thing is just to starthumming.
Just hum a bit, just feel whatit is to make sound inside your
head.
Sing a song that you love, singa song to your cat or to your
plant.
Just sing a little bit withouta judgmental audience.
(25:10):
Just see what it feels like toget some music in your body.
So that's another.
And also, I would say tellsomebody you haven't told for a
while that you love them.
I think that goes a long waytoo.
Beverley Glazer (25:22):
Wonderful.
Wise, words.
Thank you so much, Barbara.
Barbara Lewis (25:27):
Oh, it was a joy.
Beverley Glazer (25:28):
Barbara Lewis is a singer, a songwriter, and a
vocal coach.
She's known for her wide rangeof for a wide range of voice,
vulnerable stage presence, andelegant storytelling.
Coming up are her currentshows, The Simple Joys of
Christmas, which is an annualevent.
And imagine this (25:49):
a one-woman show featuring songs and stories
that celebrate and encouragecreativity in our later years.
Here are a few takeaways fromthis episode.
Grief can cause your passion,but it doesn't need to destroy
it.
Creativity matures with age, itdoesn't fade.
(26:12):
And joy always returns when yougo back to what you love.
If you've been relating to thisepisode, here are a few things
that you can do for yourselfright now.
Pause when that inner critictells you it's too late and shut
that baby down.
Take a tiny step towards an olddream.
(26:34):
Perhaps book a class, dust offan instrument, become an old
tune.
This can motivate you to domore.
And if you want to sing, sing.
Sing in the shower, sing in thecar, sing while making coffee,
reclaim your joy, but nojudgment.
For similar episodes on aging,creativity, and finding joy,
(27:00):
check out episodes 120 and 151of Aging with Purpose and
Passion.
And you might also enjoyWellness Wednesdays.
That's hosted by gerontologistSally Duplantier.
And these free recordedwebinars feature experts on
healthy aging.
That's my thinglife.com.
(27:21):
And it will also be in the shownotes underneath this episode.
And so, Barbara, where canpeople learn more about you and
find your links?
Barbara Lewis (27:32):
Um, I've got a website, Barberlewis.com, and uh
I'm on Facebook.
That's where my my audience ison Facebook, on Instagram as
well, and my YouTube channel,Singing After 40.
It's all of I think more than150 free videos for people over
40, 50, 60 to learn more abouttheir voices.
(27:53):
Oh, there's lots of places tofind me.
Beverley Glazer (27:56):
Terrific.
And if you didn't catch that,Barbara Lewis's links are in the
show notes, and they'll also beon my site too.
That's reinventimpossible.com.
And so, my friends, what's nextfor you?
Are you just going through themotions or are you living the
life that you truly love?
Get my free guide to go fromstuck to unstoppable.
(28:18):
And where do you think that is?
Yep.
You guessed it, it's in theshow notes too.
You can connect with me,Beverley Glazer, on all social
media platforms and in mypositive group of women on
Facebook.
That's Women Over50 Rock.
And thank you for listening.
Have you enjoyed thisconversation?
Please subscribe to help usspread the word by dropping a
(28:41):
review and sending this to afriend.
And remember, you only have onelife, so live it with purpose
and passion.
Announcer (28:56):
Thank you for joining us.
You can connect with Bev on herwebsite reInventimpossible.com.
And while you're there, joinour newsletter.
Subscribe so you don't miss anepisode.
Until next time, keep agingwith purpose and passion.
And celebrate life.
Welcome to Aging with Purpose and Passion, the
podcast designed to inspire yourgreatness and thrive through
life.
Get ready to conquer yourfears.
Here's your host,psychotherapist, coach, and
empowerment expert, BeverleyGlazer.
Beverley Glazer (00:32):
What if the dream you set aside years ago
was waiting for you to claim?
Welcome to Aging with Purposeand Passion.
I'm Beverley Glazer, atransition coach and catalyst
for women who are ready to raisethe bar in their own lives.
And you can find me onreadventimpossible.com.
(00:53):
Barbara Lewis is a giftedsinger, a songwriter, a vocal
coach, whose voice has beencompared to Anne Murray and Judy
Collins.
She has performed with Junonominated musicians, appeared on
PBS, and sung for thousands atthe International AIDS
(01:15):
Conference.
But what sets Barbara Lewisapart from the others is how she
inspires us to find our voicesand sing with joy in later life.
But this isn't just a storyabout music, it's about courage,
it's about creativity, and it'sabout the power of returning to
(01:38):
living your dreams.
Welcome, Barbara.
Barbara Lewis (01:41):
Thank you, Beverley.
It's a great pleasure to behere.
Beverley Glazer (01:45):
Barbara, you started singing just as a child,
seven years old.
Um, I mean, I sang as a child.
I, you know, children sing.
What was your life like as achild and a singer?
I mean, most children want tobe a star somewhere, a singer, a
dancer.
(02:05):
Who was who was Barbara Lewisat seven years old?
Barbara Lewis (02:12):
Seven's a long time ago.
72 now.
Trying to get back to seven.
Um, I had I was brought up inin an unusual religion,
Christian science.
And we were taught that we werespiritual beings.
And I think I had back when Iwas seven, I'm sure my mom had
something to do with this.
(02:32):
I think she said to me, youknow, you're going to express
beauty and you're going to healpeople.
And I think that that was partof my desire as a singer was to
be a healer in some way.
I didn't know really what thatmeant, but I did feel a lot of
passion as a young singer.
And so that was my beginning.
(02:52):
And actually, my real beginningwas when I uh booked myself for
a competition without myparents knowing when I was 11.
And I sang on this big stagewith a lot of other people.
But at one point I was put onthere to sing uh Tammy by myself
as a soloist.
And I think my mom and dad wereshocked to see me singing by
(03:15):
myself.
And I won that competition.
So for me, that was kind of thebeginning.
I said to myself, one day I'mgoing to be a great singer.
That was the beginning.
So did that shape yourconfidence?
I'm sure it did.
Oh, yes.
And and I'm I'm sure that my mymom, who was very, very
supportive, and my dad, I'm surethat they gave me a lot of
(03:36):
confidence too.
But you know, it took many,many years for me to to gather
confidence.
And uh I went through a lot ofvery difficult times in my life,
as most of us do.
Beverley Glazer (03:50):
But you were drawn to classical music, and
not everybody is.
So what drew you to that?
Barbara Lewis (03:58):
Well, I think it I I I loved uh Maureen
Forrester.
I loved her voice, I loved howshe expressed herself.
Uh I love Leonine Price.
I heard a lot of this music uhwhen I was a little girl, and I
loved the the passion that camethrough a voice, the ability to
sing in a wide, wide range,which gave you a lot of
(04:19):
opportunity to have differentcolors, emotional colors.
And that was very, veryattractive to me to be able to
uh ooze these uh or or seducemyself and others with uh the
beauty of vocal colors.
So that was my first passion.
Beverley Glazer (04:36):
But operatic training, that's a whole
different thing.
Barbara Lewis (04:41):
Yeah, operatic training.
It's you're you really are anathlete, a vocal athlete.
And I and I loved, I loved thethe music.
I didn't love the business.
I also didn't love having tosing about victimized women all
the time.
And in the end, that's whattook me away from singing
operatic music.
And I kind of turned a cornerand I decided that I would write
(05:03):
my own music and sing what Ihad to say about life.
I felt that uh the the beautyof operatic music was that you
you had to be such a wonderfulsinger to do it well.
But the drawback was that youwere singing about things from
hundreds of years before.
This was not modern women.
I did not want to be anold-fashioned woman.
(05:24):
I wanted to say things to acurrent audience.
So I started to write my ownmusic.
Beverley Glazer (05:29):
That's huge.
I mean, let's face it, that'shuge.
To just switch out because youwere also invited to sing in an
operatic company in Germany andyou walked away from that.
Barbara Lewis (05:40):
Yes, I did.
Yeah.
And it's it was huge for me,yes, but I think it was hugely
disappointing for the manypeople who got me, helped to get
me to that point.
Because you don't do that byyourself, especially in opera,
but also in pop.
You know, you have a team ofpeople who help you to to get to
that place.
And and getting there and thensaying no was it was very hard
(06:04):
to to say no and say, look, thisis my truth, this is my life,
and I'm sorry, but I'm goinganother direction.
It was very hard on people.
My mom was disappointed, andcertainly my teachers, my
singing teachers.
Beverley Glazer (06:18):
Sure.
It was hard.
It had to be hard.
Yeah.
And then you had to start andretrain your voice because now,
yeah, how did you do that?
Barbara Lewis (06:29):
Um, you know, I I thought mistakenly, it turns
out, I thought that I would beable to retrain to a degree and
then sing with the voice that Ihad developed over many years,
my own new music.
So I wrote a lot for myself.
I wrote several shows, um alloriginal material, and I sang
(06:50):
it, and then some of those didvery well.
But you know, I still was seenas a classical musician, still a
classical soprano.
So I would say that it's been awhole life's journey, even to
this point, where I've still amretraining and retraining my
voice.
I I think I'm now at 72 at mymost retrained.
(07:15):
I can now sing the wide range,but I can also sing in the more
pop style.
And that's taken many, manyyears.
What a journey it's been.
What an adventure.
And so many difficulties to togo through to get to that point.
Beverley Glazer (07:31):
Yes.
And there was a point alsowhere you just couldn't sing.
Barbara Lewis (07:37):
Yeah, that's that happened.
Um first of all, my husband andI, my first husband, I'm
remarried and very happy.
My my first husband, uh, whom Iloved so deeply.
We were like one person in away.
We were in New York at the timethat the trade towers came
down.
Actually, we were downtown uhwhen that happened.
(07:59):
And uh it's a long story, and Iwill shorten it.
Um, he was supposed to be inone of those trade towers.
And I was going downtown on abus, and uh, we saw the plane go
into the first one, and the busdriver who understood
immediately what was going on,pulled over.
He said, This somethingsomething terrible has happened.
The second plane went in and hesaid, Everybody off, this was
(08:20):
terrorism.
So I still didn't reallyunderstand what that was about.
And so I got off with all of mymusic equipment and suddenly
realized that Nick was supposedto be in one of those towers
having a meeting.
I stood on the corner of theroad uh shaking.
I tried to get my phone towork, but all of the cell phones
were down immediately.
(08:41):
And uh so I stood there withall my stuff, and I thought,
what do I do?
Uh I looked down the road, Ithought maybe I'll walk this
way, and I saw someone in thegreat distance waving like this
to me.
And Nick's appointment had beenchanged.
It was not in one of the tradetowers, so he was okay.
He met me and we walked uptownout of the smoke, out of the
(09:05):
debris, not knowing that behindus hundreds of body parts were
falling to the ground.
It was a very, very shockingtime.
So we left New York and uh itwas very, very hard.
He had to leave all of his workthat he'd worked up to to that
point, me too, totally had toleave it all behind.
Went back to Montreal and welived there for a couple of
(09:27):
years, and then suddenly hedied.
And that's for me, it was likethat was the end of my singing.
Uh, I said to my friends, uh,that's the end of men in my
life.
You know, I had a tremendousman, and uh I don't know what
I'll do now, but uh it's youknow, my life is totally
(09:48):
different.
Uh and it was.
But I I continued to teach.
I had been teaching, Icontinued to do that, and I
began over a couple of years tofeel a need again to express
real love.
I felt like a lot of the worldat that time, as it is now,
(10:08):
lacked real love.
I think so many people feltterribly, terribly hurt and
angry, as did I, uh, and in asense of great grief.
But I felt love amazingly,maybe it was my upbringing, my
mother my mother speaking to mefrom the grave.
I I felt this love inside, anduh I decided I would come back
(10:32):
to to singing in some way.
But then I met this wonderfulman with whom I'm married now,
and he said, Barbara, you gottasing.
So uh, you know, I I started tosing again.
I feel very, very fortunatethat uh uh I came back to it
because I have to tell you,Beverly, I'm sure you know this,
but singing, especially whenyou sing with others, it's it's
(10:57):
an inner healing for the body.
It wakes up, I mean you wouldknow this, it wakes up all of
those amazing feel-good hormonesin the body.
And so when you sing, you'reyou're in a way, you're you're
kind of creating a a wash ofhealing inside.
So for me, that's that's I Iteach that the great joy of
(11:19):
thing.
I sing about it in my in myshows, and I talk about it a
lot.
The joy of of singing and whatit does for us.
Beverley Glazer (11:29):
How could you just build that confidence again
from teaching and thenstopping?
I mean, it's huge to go back ona large stage or even in an
intimate venue and and expressyourself when you have all this
judgment.
People are looking and you'rejudging yourself.
(11:50):
Is my voice still good?
Yes.
How did you get your confidenceback?
Yes.
Barbara Lewis (11:55):
Um you know, I feel that inside we have a
universe of being to call on.
I think most of the time, ormuch of the time, we're not able
for one reason or another tocall on that.
But I think it during times ofgreat extremity, either we shut
down and we have to heal indifferent ways, or we say, I've
(12:19):
got to find that place insidethat will lift me up again.
And uh again, you know, maybeit was my upbringing, but also
it was friends, the the strengthof friends around me.
I had great, great friends,family members who uh gave me a
lot of encouragement.
I think we need a good supportstructure to to regain momentum
(12:41):
and equilibrium.
And I I was very lucky to havethat.
And I also felt that I had lovewelling up inside of me.
And I wanted to express it.
And for me, the best way toexpress love is is uh, if not
through friends and family, it'sthrough singing.
So that gave me a lot ofcourage to walk on the stage and
(13:03):
say, here I am, like it or not,I have something to say, and
I'm gonna say it.
And fortunately, uh manypeople, uh, enough people liked
what I was doing.
Beverley Glazer (13:15):
And today you coach adults to really do the
same, but they're notnecessarily singers.
These are people that love tosing.
Why did you choose that?
Barbara Lewis (13:28):
Well, you know, it's it's funny.
Uh, when I was quite young, uhliving in Vermont, lived on a
hilltop in Vermont, I loved itthere, with my husband,
Nicholas.
He was a writer, a deepthinker.
And I remember saying to him,you know, I think I'm gonna be a
late bloomer.
I'm sorry to tell you that.
(13:48):
I don't think I'm gonna come tofruition early in life.
And he said, Oh, whatever, youknow, be the artist you are, a
great freedom.
But I said to him, I think thatI'm gonna come to fruition
later in life, and I'm gonnahelp older people sing and love
music and love nature too.
And so I kind of felt that veryearly in my life.
(14:10):
I I can't explain it.
It's it's not that I'm a seer.
I just had that feeling, maybebecause it was taking me a long
time to get where I wanted toget.
So it wasn't strange for menow, later in life, to say my
specialty is going to be helpingpeople who are a bit older.
I usually I say, you know, 50plus.
(14:30):
On my on my uh YouTube channel,it's 40 plus, but that's not
old.
So 55, 60.
Some of my students are intheir 75, 80 range.
But I wanted to help olderpeople rediscover the joy of
making a wonderful sound, ofspeaking uh or or singing a wide
(14:50):
variety of emotions that wedon't often get the the pleasure
of speaking in our lives.
So many women are kind of shutdown when they get older.
They feel like they don't havemuch left or they live for their
children.
But when you sing, you reachinside and you find a wide
variety, a gamut of emotions.
And to be able to express that,even if your voice is not
(15:12):
great, I don't care.
I say to them, we don't care.
We're just here to to findwhat's inside and to let it come
out on the wings of a song.
So for me, it's a great, greatjoy.
I I work with people who usedto sing and are coming back to
it, and with those who alwayshad the dream to sing and now
they're gonna do it.
So for me, it's an adventure.
(15:33):
It's cathartic.
I love it.
Beverley Glazer (15:36):
Right.
What do you think is thebiggest stumbling block that you
see in um not just women, mentoo, when they think about their
voice?
What do you think holds themback?
Barbara Lewis (15:47):
Well, so many people say to me, I can't sing.
And I say, Why do you say that?
Well, when I was a kid at atschool, the school teacher said
to me, Everybody can sing exceptyou, Norma.
You don't have a voice.
And I always feel like, oh,what damage that teacher did.
(16:07):
It's so unfair.
So I say, Well, let's justleave that behind.
That's when you were a kid.
Just trust me for the next fewmonths, and let's see what we
can bring out of you.
Because if you can speak andyou have not damaged your your
hearing, you can sing.
I mean, when you get older, youlose hearing.
(16:28):
But even people, I I teach awonderful singer who who is
legally deaf.
And we have, she learned how tosing, and she sings
beautifully.
Claire Duchayneau, she's anamazing singer.
So, you know, I'd I I try toallow them to let go of these
very early childhood traumas andsay, let's try it now.
(16:50):
Now is the point of power.
Beverley Glazer (16:53):
Yes, it's true.
There's only now.
Yep.
And so you have to take thatstep.
If you want to do it, you haveto take that step and get out
there and just play do it.
Yeah, you do.
Yeah, it takes courage.
It sure does.
You've suffered grief, you'vesuffered loss, you've suffered
reinvention many, many times.
(17:14):
What keeps you grounded?
Barbara Lewis (17:18):
Well, I would say um friends and family, uh, the
love of friends and family andloving them.
But also, um, I love nature.
I have a little garden and Idream about that garden in the
winter, and and I plant it inthe winter, and in the spring I
begin to work in it, and allsummer I work on that garden.
(17:38):
And ah, the garden, like music,I think, gardens.
Well, you know, one of thosefame uh famous quotes from
Oliver Sachs, he talks abouttaking his neurologically
disabled clients and patients tothe botanical gardens in New
York City.
He says that that just walkingthrough those gardens was better
(18:01):
often than any drug that hecould give them.
So gardens, I don't know why,but they uplift us and they
certainly uplift me.
So that's one thing.
Well, music, you know, I get tosing a lot, I get to perform a
lot.
So I get a lot of sleep.
I think sleep's hugelyimportant.
We're finding that it is.
I'm very fortunate to be ableto eat well, you know.
(18:24):
All of these things cometogether as kind of a a tapestry
of well-being.
But I think music and natureare things that if you don't
have those in your life, they'reso easy to add.
Just to having a plant in inyour room can make a difference.
I was talking about imaginethis.
Oh, sure.
(18:45):
Okay.
Well, you know, I uh before Iwrote this uh or put together
this show called Imagine This, Iwent through during the the
period of COVID, the second yearof COVID, I went through
something I would call an innerdesert.
I just had nothing left togive, even though I had a lot of
commitments.
Uh I was I had a YouTubechannel that I was working on, I
(19:08):
was teaching, I was singingconcerts online, I was writing
music and writing about music.
I had a lot of commitments, andyet I felt not dead inside, but
but like I had no more ideas, Ihad no more juice.
And uh so I did what I havedone in the past when I've
really been in dire straits.
I I picked up some books, I'dread a lot of books, and there
(19:31):
were several books that really,really touched me.
And uh I did the exercises,morning exercises where you you
just write, write, write.
I think that was um JuliaCameron.
She wrote a book about being anartist, but for older people,
and I did some of her exercises.
Uh, there was another book thatI read that was uh Three Simple
(19:54):
Steps, I think it was called.
And I did those exercises whereyou just allow your yourself to
find out again what you'recurious about.
For me, curiosity had died, andthat's crucial.
Curiosity is crucial whenyou're older, I'm finding.
So over a period of about ninemonths, I worked on myself a lot
with books, uh, withmeditation, did a lot of
(20:18):
meditation.
And eventually I started torevive inside it.
It went from being a desert tobeing kind of a tropical
rainforest, a little out ofcontrol at times.
But I realized that there wasthere was a show there for older
people, not just singing.
I I love to sing, but I wantedalso to have a talk.
(20:39):
I wanted it to be a concerttalk.
So that's what imagine this is.
It's um it's a way of oftalking about creativity when
we're older.
It's coming back to creativity.
Uh, I sing beautiful music, Italk about what it is to be a
late bloomer.
I encourage people.
It's an encouragement of and asupport for creativity
(21:02):
throughout your whole life.
And I find, much to my joy andkind of surprise, that people
love this show.
Right now it's it's an houronly.
It could it could be a littlelonger, and I can shorten it,
but it's it's a solid hour ofmusic and talk about the joy of
creativity, of finding,refining, rediscovering uh the
(21:26):
creative energy inside.
And I suppose, in a way, my myhope is that people when they
leave the show will feel morealive inside and that they have
ideas.
At the last one I did inOttawa, a woman came to me and
she said, You know, Barbara, I'malmost a hundred.
And I said, My goodness, youdon't look a hundred.
(21:47):
She said, Well, I'm 96.
And she said, You know, you'veencouraged me.
I've always wanted to write.
And darn it, I'm gonna do it,even though I'm 96.
I have things to tell mygrandchildren.
I'm just gonna write.
That is the kind of responsethat I love from Imagine This.
And I've I've got bookings nowinto the new year, and I'll
(22:11):
travel a little bit.
My hope is to take it acrossCanada.
So I'm working on that.
And I love the show.
I love doing it, and I feelreally fortunate, very lucky to
still be singing.
Beverley Glazer (22:23):
Yes, and you're doing something good, it's
beyond singing and just going toa concert.
What I'm seeing is it's acombination of both singing and
therapy.
You're gonna walk out feelingreally good, knowing a little
bit about yourself and music.
What's better than that?
You're singing.
(22:44):
You know, what have you foundwhen you're teaching, and there
people are teaching and usingtheir voice, sometimes for the
first time in a long time?
What changes do you see inthem?
Barbara Lewis (22:59):
All sorts of changes.
Um people are amazed by theemotion that that comes up.
And I was speaking about thatearlier, that we don't in life
uh often have chances to emotein very uh in many subtle ways,
romantic ways as well.
I think when we're older, we'renot quite as romantic, don't
(23:22):
feel as sexual.
But through a song, you canexplore those feelings.
And so that's something Inotice in in older people that
they're finding, they'rere-finding feelings that they've
had.
They're they're rediscoveringthat that out of their beautiful
older bodies can come somethingthat delights other people as
(23:43):
well as themselves.
Uh, so I I love that notionthat you can rediscover things
that have been kind of dormantfor a long time.
And uh it's a a reliving, it'scoming alive in a in a new way.
I mean, none of us have everbeen in our 70s before.
When you get there, you go,holy moly, this is the first
(24:05):
time I've been 72.
And wow, this is like I didn'texpect this, the the the lines
and the wrinkles and the lack ofenergy and stuff.
But you still can feel so aliveif you find the roots to do so,
and singing is one of them.
Beverley Glazer (24:19):
Yeah.
What's one thing you'd like totell people just to find their
joy?
One encouraging thing.
Barbara Lewis (24:27):
I would say if you don't, if you don't have a
plant in your life, buy yourselfa beautiful plant.
One plant.
I found that I took one plantto a woman who was very down in
an old folks' home, and shecalled me the next day and she
said, Barbara, you brought mealive.
I love this plant.
And it wasn't just that onetime.
(24:49):
She called me week after weekand she said, I got to tell you
about my plant today.
So that's one thing.
Another thing is just to starthumming.
Just hum a bit, just feel whatit is to make sound inside your
head.
Sing a song that you love, singa song to your cat or to your
plant.
Just sing a little bit withouta judgmental audience.
(25:10):
Just see what it feels like toget some music in your body.
So that's another.
And also, I would say tellsomebody you haven't told for a
while that you love them.
I think that goes a long waytoo.
Beverley Glazer (25:22):
Wonderful.
Wise, words.
Thank you so much, Barbara.
Barbara Lewis (25:27):
Oh, it was a joy.
Beverley Glazer (25:28):
Barbara Lewis is a singer, a songwriter, and a
vocal coach.
She's known for her wide rangeof for a wide range of voice,
vulnerable stage presence, andelegant storytelling.
Coming up are her currentshows, The Simple Joys of
Christmas, which is an annualevent.
And imagine this (25:49):
a one-woman show featuring songs and stories
that celebrate and encouragecreativity in our later years.
Here are a few takeaways fromthis episode.
Grief can cause your passion,but it doesn't need to destroy
it.
Creativity matures with age, itdoesn't fade.
(26:12):
And joy always returns when yougo back to what you love.
If you've been relating to thisepisode, here are a few things
that you can do for yourselfright now.
Pause when that inner critictells you it's too late and shut
that baby down.
Take a tiny step towards an olddream.
(26:34):
Perhaps book a class, dust offan instrument, become an old
tune.
This can motivate you to domore.
And if you want to sing, sing.
Sing in the shower, sing in thecar, sing while making coffee,
reclaim your joy, but nojudgment.
For similar episodes on aging,creativity, and finding joy,
(27:00):
check out episodes 120 and 151of Aging with Purpose and
Passion.
And you might also enjoyWellness Wednesdays.
That's hosted by gerontologistSally Duplantier.
And these free recordedwebinars feature experts on
healthy aging.
That's my thinglife.com.
(27:21):
And it will also be in the shownotes underneath this episode.
And so, Barbara, where canpeople learn more about you and
find your links?
Barbara Lewis (27:32):
Um, I've got a website, Barberlewis.com, and uh
I'm on Facebook.
That's where my my audience ison Facebook, on Instagram as
well, and my YouTube channel,Singing After 40.
It's all of I think more than150 free videos for people over
40, 50, 60 to learn more abouttheir voices.
(27:53):
Oh, there's lots of places tofind me.
Beverley Glazer (27:56):
Terrific.
And if you didn't catch that,Barbara Lewis's links are in the
show notes, and they'll also beon my site too.
That's reinventimpossible.com.
And so, my friends, what's nextfor you?
Are you just going through themotions or are you living the
life that you truly love?
Get my free guide to go fromstuck to unstoppable.
(28:18):
And where do you think that is?
Yep.
You guessed it, it's in theshow notes too.
You can connect with me,Beverley Glazer, on all social
media platforms and in mypositive group of women on
Facebook.
That's Women Over50 Rock.
And thank you for listening.
Have you enjoyed thisconversation?
Please subscribe to help usspread the word by dropping a
(28:41):
review and sending this to afriend.
And remember, you only have onelife, so live it with purpose
and passion.
Announcer (28:56):
Thank you for joining us.
You can connect with Bev on herwebsite reInventimpossible.com.
And while you're there, joinour newsletter.
Subscribe so you don't miss anepisode.
Until next time, keep agingwith purpose and passion.
And celebrate life.
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