| The same year Matt Wessel began playing piano for services in his church, his father was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Two years later, his father died. Wessel was just a junior in high school. Not long after, Wessel began combining his interest in liturgical music with his desire to fight cancer. A composer, singer and pianist, Wessel will perform with his back-up band at 1 p.m. Sunday at St. Anne Catholic Church as a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society. This is his second appearance at the church. He performed a cancer-research benefit show there last October. His performances are dubbed "Concert for Life." A native of Gurnee, Ill., who lives in Milwaukee and works full time in public relations for the Milwaukee Bucks organization, Wessel plays a mix of religious and secular music that inspires listeners. He has recorded six CDs of original works, and his performances have raised $150,000 for cancer research. His latest album, "Carry On," was released in 2006. In total, he has sold more than 6,000 albums. He is working on a seventh album of songs recorded live. He became interested in writing songs as a means to cope with his father's death. "When he passed away my music really started to see an impact - especially the original music," Wessel, 26, said. "I started writing original music as a way to deal with the sadness and cope with the loss." While studying broadcast journalism at Marquette University, Wessel became involved in liturgical music at the school. He wrote a number of pieces with the idea that they might one day be used by churches during standard liturgical services. He observed that much of the new liturgical music being published tends to be challenging and difficult - music a congregation wouldn't be able to learn easily. Wessel decided to write simpler liturgical pieces, with strong melodies and familiar words. Today, Wessel's music still touches on his experiences with his father's cancer and passing, but it continues to be dominated by themes of hope, courage, love and strength, he said. "I want people to come away from our show feeling inspired," he said. Wessel and his bandmates - a violinist, flutist, bassist, drummer and guitarist - aren't paid for the half dozen shows they do each year. Most of their performance benefit cancer research. "We play for free," Wessel said. "It's our ministry, our way to give back to the community. We let all the ticket sales go to the cause. I use any money I make in CD sales to pay the musicians gas money. We drive all over, and our violinist lives in Madison and our bass player lives in Chicago. We're spread out a bit, but still close enough to make the shows work." All of Wessel's CDs consist of his original songs. The first album was entirely instrumental music. "As I became more comfortable singing and my lyrics became less cheesy, I began doing a lot more songs with lyrics and vocals," he said. "My latest CD has just three instrumentals." Wessel's show on Sunday will consist of two sets with a mix of religious and secular music, and a 15-minute intermission. Total time for the program will be about one hour and 45 minutes. "We're excited to be returning to St. Anne and hope that people will come and join us for a fun afternoon of music, food and fellowship," he said. Wessel has played a number of benefit shows for other organizations, including Habitat For Humanity and general church fund-raisers for parish programs. He also has made numerous appearances at Relay For Life events throughout the Midwest. The American Cancer Society gave Wessel a Distinguished Service Award in the youth category in 2004 and a Chairman's Award in the Illinois division in 2005 for his work with the "Concert For Life" series and his support of the American Cancer Society. Original link: http://www.kenoshanews.com/article_comments/view_comments.php?articleNum=1837230 |
| mattwesselmusic.com |
| letters (read what people are saying about my music) A MUSICAL BATTLE: MUSICIAN USES TALENT TO BENEFIT AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY by bill robbins | kenosha news (kenosha, WI) | october 19, 2007 |