Music for Seniors
Dana and Martha have a special interest in providing music to senior audiences, primarily because “they love to listen to the music we love to play!” Dana and Martha have performed as a duo in concert at various retirement communities and care facilities around the Twin Cities. At a recent event at a retirement community in Golden Valley, several audience members told the Activities Director that this was the best concert they had ever attended there! (For references and testimonials, please visit the Testimonials page.)
The Mathewsons collaborate with a few different groups that provide musical events for seniors – From the Heart, our mixed quartet, and the Bloomingtones Senior Citizens chorus. Click the icons below for more information about these remarkable and unique ensembles.
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Introducing FROM THE HEART
FROM THE HEART, a quartet with Martha on piano, Dana on woodwinds, Melissa O’Neill, soprano and Tom Witry, baritone, performs classics straight from the heart of the Great American Songbook and from stage and screen. You know which ones we mean… those timeless tunes that every person of ‘a certain age’ sang along with on the radio, those favorite pieces that were playing when they fell in love, the songs the big band played when they danced with their favorite partner…. FROM THE HEART brings these classics to life in fresh and tasteful style.
FROM THE HEART is available to perform for daytime, evening or weekend engagements, designing a program around your specific audience, event or occasion, including concerts of any length for Young At Heart clubs, retirement community and care facility entertainment programs, fundraiser and benefit events, wedding receptions, birthday and anniversary parties and church group events.
To download a copy of our flyer that we can personalize for your event, click here.
A little about Tom and Melissa:
Melissa has performed professionally in a wide variety of venues from Opera to Musical Theater to Jazz and Contemporary Christian. She toured nationally as a featured soloist with Tony Sandler (of Sandler & Young), and has sung and danced with Joel Grey, Phyllis Diller, Michael Feinstein, and with Steven Ross at the Ordway’s McKnight Theatre in, “I Won’t Dance”. Melissa has had the great pleasure of performing with The Minnesota Opera Company, Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, The Dale Warland Singers, SPCO Chorale, Skylark Opera Company, The Guthrie Theatre, Nautilus Music Theatre, and in many musical productions at The Ordway. She is the section leader and soloist at Spirit of Hope Church in Golden Valley, and is a choral director and private voice teacher at Wayzata High School.
Tom has entertained audiences nationally in over 70 professional productions, many of which he has shared the stage with his wife, Melissa. Most notably he has performed with The Guthrie Theatre, Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, The MUNY of St. Louis, Sacramento Music Circus, and the Fox Theatre of Atlanta. He has performed alongside Joel Grey, Gordon MacRae, Phyllis Diller, Rue McClanahan, and was understudy to John Schneider in the role of Curly for The Ordway Music Theatre’s production of, “Oklahoma!” Tom sings in the vocal quartet, Jerry Rubino Plus, and with The Nostalgics Quartet & Classic Big Band. These groups have performed at Orchestra Hall, local clubs & parks, as educational outreach, and for private & corporate events. Tom is also a section leader and soloist at Spirit of Hope Church in Golden Valley, and a freelance voice over and commercial artist in the Twin Cities.
To listen to some samples of From the Heart’s offerings, click below.
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Martha has been a guest accompanist for two unique Twin Cities choral ensembles whose missions include performing for seniors; the Metropolitan Male Chorus of Minnesota (which is no longer active) and the Bloomingtones, both of which are available for engagement for your event or venue.
Metropolitan Male Chorus of Minnesota (MMC)
The Metropolitan Male Chorus of Minnesota (MMC) is a diverse group of men ranging in age from 25 to 85. They sing across a broad range of musical repertoires but the group’s signature offerings are African-American spirituals, folk songs, and gospel tunes ― art forms to which the group brings sensitivity, historical awareness, and personal experience. Their music is full of love, sincerity and straight from the heart.
Click below to hear some of the Metropolitan Male Chorus’s offerings:
MMC can be engaged for your church group, your retirement or care facility by visiting their website at metropolitanmalechorus.com. Be sure to tell them that you heard about them on this website, making it much more likely that Martha will be accompanying the choir.
The Bloomingtones
The Bloomingtones is a mixed chorus composed entirely of seniors from Bloomington, Minnesota, whose repertoire covers a broad spectrum of well-known favorites from standards to showtunes and everything in between, appealing to their senior audiences, and which performs almost exclusively at retirement and care facilities. Their director, Alice Olson, has this to say about the Mathewsons’ and their collaboration with the group: “It has been our privilege, joy, and delight to have Martha and Dana Mathewson as accompanists, on occasion, for the Bloomingtones, a seniors’ mixed chorus from Bloomington. They truly add their amazing musical talents to our group as we entertain in seniors’ residences in the Twin Cities area. Martha is an awesome pianist, and Dana so versatile on the clarinet. They are very professional, and they add such musicality to our programs. Our audiences are truly entertained and thrilled with them.”
Click below to hear some of the Bloomingtones offerings:
The Bloomingtones can be engaged for daytime performances in the south metro-Bloomington area by sending an email to Patty Franssen at pattyfranssen@gmail.com and be sure to tell her that you heard about them on this website, which will make it much more likely that Dana and Martha will be accompanying the choir.