“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Authenticity is highly important to me. I am writing this, knowing that I could be more formal and concise – but I want to say it my way. I come alive in my mission to serve persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias – using music!  If I ever speak publicly, it is about the power of music – and my voice, I use for them and not me. Since I was a child, I had wondered why my joy had been music.  Why did music-evoked nostalgia, and songs from the 1980’s, fascinate me so?

I first completed a Master of Arts degree in Mind, Brain, and Behavior from San Francisco State University, writing a thesis about the neural correlates of the music-evoked autobiographical memory. During the program, I watched the documentary Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory.  In that Berkeley movie theater, I was crying at the end of the film.  Waking up people with music and beautiful memories is why I am alive.  This is why I cannot escape my love and passion for sound.  This is what is calling me to live better.

After graduating, I volunteered at an adult day health center in Napa, California.  I told the volunteer services director, I just wanted to help one person with Alzheimer’s disease using music.  That began my journey with older adult clinical populations.  It was a spiritual experience, watching love in action in adult day health centers – I discovered and realized people heal each other.  Music enhances this experience.

I founded Throwbax, prior to the pandemic, because of the wonder that I have in music to spark joy and transform individuals.  Since then, I have been a contributing reviewer for the scientific journal Music Perception.  I also completed the Certification in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence from the University of California, Berkeley.  I will assist in whatever way I can, in research and writing, to help flood persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias with people – with music. In my free time, I will also be creating songs, using my certificate in audio production from the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences. 

My hope is to, to put it even more colloquially, have a blast with this company and with you. 

– Christine Rapadas

The definition of “throwback” from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

The definition of “Throwback Thursday” from the Urban Dictionary:

A “throwback” song will take one back in time, and multiple songs – throwbacks. What are those moments that we love throwing ourselves back to? I consider those moments treasure, worth more than money. My vision is that people grow rich in this sense.

I kept this a secret, and the first person I ever told was Michael Rossato-Bennett, the director of Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory. In the winter of 2023, I told him I want these four words on my epitaph. They are the words from a person with dementia, who hardly spoke – but she somehow got the message to me, and I received it. I wish it happened more often, but it only occurred one morning. As I lifted headphones from her ears, she lovingly smiled, looked into my eyes, and said, “I remember. Thank you.”

Whenever we forget this beauty in our past, that is when music can be life. This company is not only for persons with Alzheimer’s disease, but for anyone who has forgotten their best and highest self.