Sixty's Teen Gets the Gigs!

       Terese Grotius McKannan, long-time veteran musician and singer has it better than some these days when it comes to landing music jobs. At a time when there is so much hype on competition, television contests, getting a record deal, or even regularly working in one's hometown, she is in high demand within the senior communities.
     As a teenager who grew up in the 60's, she was highly influenced by her mother, Najla Macksoud Grotius, who was a singer and pianist for one of USO's first '40's entertaining groups during WW2 while professor-father and drama director Robert Grotius  encouraged them to put a little theatre into the act.  Terese and the other five Grotius siblings rehearsed with their mother's instrumental backup, tight harmonies, and snappy delivery which also launched their professional music careers.

       Terese began her own career in high school and gradually expanded  her repertoire till she was booked in popular piano bars. With her lively presentation and remarkable ability to engage audiences with familiar TV show themes and commercials, she kept the night clubbers awake as they asked for more. Before long, she was working the plush hotels, piano bars, clubs, and restaurants, both locally and across the states while moonlighting. Though between the traveling gigs she took a few brief jobs in the mainstream work force, she always came back to playing music.

        Now getting older has its perks as there will always be the elders whose needs include more than good health care. They need to be entertained, wooed by the sounds of their time, emotionally taking them away from the mundane and melancholy. Terese decided to give back to our parents' generation by dedicating a 45 minute program to a few nursing facilities. They loved her! With letters of introduction to many more senior venues, some photographs and a resume of her musical career, calls began to roll in. It wasn't long before she nearly had more than she could handle. But she was happy. Happy because she was doing something she always knew and loved and could do it full time while care-giving her own mother.
       She delivers a punchy medley of national and state anthems. Among them are:
God Bless America, Back Home Again In Indiana, California Here I Come,Georgia, and many others.  She also performs show tunes like Cabaret, Hello Dolly, and Moulin Rouge. The best of the Beatles also roused the memories of those who raised their own children of the 60's making it easy to smile, cry, and sing along. The icing on the cake is the love and endearment she has with the residents who attend her programs.
     "I become very close to many of these wonderful people," Terese reports . "I've spoken with some notables as well. Like Bettie Engelbrecht, whose dance team performed with Debbie Reynolds in the movie, Singing In The Rain. And Marilyn Durham, author of  The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing."  Terese was honored.  She tears up when telling about her chat with haulicost survivor Veronika Federowska Samila who jumped off a train while in transit toward Auschwitz to escape her eventual brief encampment. (Compassionate as well,  Terese makes a point to see their extended families whenever a resident passes away.)
      She  lives in Evansville and and serves nearly all local facilties, and more  frequently  at Newburgh Healthcare,The Heritage,  The Protestant Home, and others.
       If you want to hear a few sound clips, I'm afraid she's old fashioned, doesn't mess with the computer and needs me to speak on her behalf since she's my sister! Terese would like to invite anyone to come to one of her events. To request a list of upcoming gigs,  you can email me directly: czeal@hotmail.com  Subject: (RantingsFromRiverBayBlog)