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'Make people happy': Musicians work to bring live music to retirement homes

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There has been a recent push to introduce live music to seniors homes in order to make life a little brighter.

Walter Ostanek is a well known accordion player from St. Catherines who takes time to play at seniors homes while on tour.

“I try and make people happy and when they’re happy, they make me happy,” Ostanek told CTV News.

Two organizations are making it part of their mission to fund concerts for seniors, Concerts in Care and the Music Performance Trust Fund.

The seniors enjoy the music while musicians are fairly compensated for their work.

“We’ve been doing it all through the pandemic. We have masked up, we have been tested at the front door and they won’t let us in a lot of times unless we are absolutely sure that we don’t have COVID. We don’t mind that at all," said Brian Sklar.

“We want to stay healthy and we want to keep them healthy.”

Concerts in Care has provided over two thousand performances at seniors homes in Ontario and has branched out to other provinces like Saskatchewan where it has teamed up with the musicians union.

“It’s a great idea. They came here during COVID-19 and played outside and I think it did a lot for all of us,” said Patricia Popescul, who was present for the show.

By the end of each performance, it’s common for everyone to be on their feet, as the music brings joy to seniors who faced limited entertainment options during the pandemic.

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