CONCERTS IN CARE ONTARIO
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Mission Statement
Concerts in Care Ontario enriches the lives of seniors, offering them the best quality live music performed by distinguished professionals. Concerts in Care brings joy to seniors wherever they live and strengthens community by creating shared experiences for residents, their families, and caregivers.
About This Cause
The demand for high quality music for seniors is great and growing, with good reason. Both scientific research and years of Concerts in Care experiences demonstrate that nothing touches and moves our elderly audiences more than music. Music weaves a web of sound and memories that make the elders happy and gives them shared experiences to talk about over lunch and dinner. Research supports the power of music to benefit mood, decrease pain, and help make life better for those who experience mental and emotional stress. Our concerts provide the joy and relief that can make a huge difference not only for the hour of music, but often for the rest of the day, and even days afterwards. I have been having a difficult time adjusting to living in a retirement residence, but after the concert yesterday I felt I was part of life again. Mary in Elliot Lake, to her daughter after Sudbury String Quartet and Thea May Our concerts are 45-60 minutes in length, including narrative and storytelling about the music, the musicians, and the instruments. Our music ranges from classical, jazz, and American Songbook/Broadway, to a number of culturally specific musicians and ensembles including Chinese, Caribbean, French, Yiddish, Japanese, and south Asian. She is incredible. My residents are in awe! OMG! We had a big crowd stay afterwards and talk to her. They want her to come back. She was great: not only played music but also talked about the music she played. The residents felt they had an amazing music lesson. They want her back. Teresa at Sorrento Retirement re Di Zhang, Chinese dulcimer Concerts in Care Ontario serves long-term and memory care, assisted and independent living, seniors living in facilities for the homeless, and palliative care facilities, as well as seniors living at home through partnerships with Seniors’ Active Living Centres (SALCs). In 2023, we were privileged to include to indigenous musical exchanges while on tour on Manitoulin Island and Curve Lake Reserve. Seniors, their care partners and health care staff, and families enjoy a variety of beautiful and enjoyable music performed by top professional musicians. They hear solos, duos, trios, and an occasional quartet playing music of all styles: classical, jazz, Cuban jazz, American Songbook and Broadway, Latin-American and more. CiCO musicians are screened for artistic excellence by the Executive Director, Artistic Advisor, and Music Coordinator. The musicians largely self-select with regard to performing for these elderly, intimate audiences. Our musicians are comfortable in the seniors’ milieu, and compassionate with their audiences. Programming guidelines include offering music in shorter selections, always making connection with introductions, stories, and description of the music. They also visit with their aging audiences after the performances. Another great concert at the Grenadier this afternoon. These 3 very talented and personable musicians treated a large and appreciative audience to some well-known and well- loved jazz pieces — much toe-tapping and some singing-along. I continue to be gobsmacked by the quality of the musicians you produce. Bob Weese, Resident and Donor Our financial supporters connect live professional music to thousands of seniors and care partners, mitigating the fact that CiCO must subsidize 90% of the concerts we produce because the majority of seniors; program budgets cannot cover even the basic musician fees. Through the pandemic we expanded our musical services from live, in-person concerts to include live Zoom concerts and 30-minute virtual recorded concerts, as well as outdoor concerts. We continue to serve all of these audiences. Our live performances now reach 15,000+ seniors each year; virtual concerts have 180k+ views. We are booking up to 570 concerts in 2024, but there is demand for many more. Since 2011, we have performed more than 2600 concerts for almost 125,000 seniors and caregivers, providing over 5,000 musician engagements. CiCO concerts offer a musical experience that combines a visit with a first-rate concert - the perfect combination of social and musical connection, guaranteed to bring joy and relief to every senior and care partner we meet. You have opened a door I thought had closed forever. I love concerts, especially musicals, but I just cannot get out to them anymore. And here they are - in my living room! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Dorothy, day program member, after a concert of Broadway medleys