Balancing a violin and bow in one hand, Concetta Previte whipped her wheelchair through a Bronx nursing home, heading for a composing workshop at the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function.

Ms. Previte, 72, who is chronically ill, writes lyrics. She scribbles the words on the back of nursing home menus, mostly songs about love lost or love found.

For two weeks, she joined six other residents at Beth Abraham Health Services in a collaboration with seven chamber music players from Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, whose Musical Connections program aims to bring music to a wider audience, in healthcare settings, prisons, homeless shelters and senior service organizations.

The patients, ages 57 to 98, varied in their musical ability. Andrew Asch, 58, for instance, is a classically trained pianist and composer with neuromuscular problems that curtailed his career, but not his passion for music.

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Other “Beth Abe musicians,” as they were dubbed, show the effects of strokes, or have vascular disease or dementia.

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Three times a week for two hours, the hallways echoed with Bach, blues and spirituals, as the patients and Carnegie Hall musicians, who call themselves the Declassified, worked to create and eventually perform original pieces. The patients brought their tunes, melodies, lyrics and ideas to the sessions.