Songs with a mission

Tony Falzano has been writing songs for decades with the same mission: to help people in his community. 

The Caring Music Group, which he founded, is a performance troupe that performs music written by Falzano to support small nonprofits in the Rochester area, helping them secure sponsors and run their own fundraising events. At the center of these events is a show put on by the group, completely composed of original music written by Falzano. 

Rochester has no shortage of nonprofit organizations, but the ones that attract the help of the Caring Music Group are small nonprofits with small staffs, lower operating costs, and less marketing support.

“We try to raise them all the money we can based on our resources, and we’re both small and unknown. … You end up doing it for the love of it,” Falzano says as a playful nod to his song “For the Love of It,” which is a heavily Broadway-inspired and lightly choreographed tune in the show.

The show features a collection of Falzano songs that are performed one after the other, and the setlist is chosen depending on the audience and theme. The music at these shows is bright, accessible, and heartwarming, and is usually stylistically informed by Great American Songbook pop, show tunes, and easy listening.

“Music has its audience, and people who come to a fundraiser are not interested in anything too political, finger-pointing songs, loud music. … You stay within the bumpers on the alley, so that they walk out of there having an enjoyable experience,” Falzano says. 

A night with the Caring Music Group typically brings in $5,000 to $10,000 for the beneficiary, with the most profitable night raising nearly $19,000, which fits nicely with the scale of the nonprofits the group works with.

The nonprofits are responsible for hosting and running the event itself, while the Caring Music Group is responsible for the show. Caring Music staff member Laura Amick says Falzano often explains that the group owns everything from the edge of the stage back, and everything before it is up to the beneficiaries.  

While this statement is true, it doesn’t reflect the support and guidance the Caring Music Group gives these nonprofits to plan the event, find sponsor support, and make sure the show runs smoothly. 

“We’ve been doing it for 15 years, so you learn things,” Falzano says. “We encourage them to get sponsors and they’ll run ideas by us, and most of them are certainly worthy. It’s a bit of a guiding process.”

This is an important aspect of working with the Caring Music Group, especially for small nonprofits that aren’t regularly hosting events or attracting sponsors. While admission and ticket sales raise a good portion of the money, usually most of it comes from sponsor support, so navigating that area of fundraising is a notable piece of these shows. 

“It’s the smaller groups that need somebody to do this,” Falzano says. “So when you bring in three other people and they’ve been doing this and they have some of the knowledge you’re looking for and they can do the entertainment, it’s a comfortable feeling to have.”

The group had three shows in November: one in support of the Mary Magdalene Church, one for the Rochester Northwest Rotary Club, and another for the St. Christopher’s Church. All three nonprofits surpassed their fundraising goals. Previous beneficiaries include RocDog, Hearts for ALS, and Rochester Emergency Veterinary Services, among others. 

The Caring Music Group started with a handful of shows to support the Geva Theatre, but Falzano has been using his music to help the communities around him since he moved to Rochester in the 1970s after graduating from SUNY Geneseo. He lent his songwriting abilities to a group that put on musicals featuring Rochester teenagers. 

After reuniting with one of these teens decades later in 2009, he was prompted to create some shows to raise money for Geva. The Caring Music Group has been around ever since that first show in 2010, making 2025 its 15th year serving Rochester nonprofits. Some of the teenagers that he worked with in the 1970s are now involved in The Caring Music Group today.

“I needed an angle, I guess,” Falzano says. “People who are in need might be where the music goes, and should go.”

It isn’t only the Caring Music Group that Falzano uses his music for aid, either. He has also found an audience in grieving individuals. After the music he wrote for meditation purposes caught the ear of a grief therapist he knew, Falzano was introduced to companies that provided resources to support those in a time of loss. This led Falzano to write pieces on the healing potential of music and to make albums specifically to help people recover. 

“I’m not a performer. I never wanted to be a performer. I just loved learning how to write and to write songs that moved people, that made them either feel better or just, you know, made them happy, that would connect with people, and make them feel better,” he says.

The Caring Music Group has a small staff team of 12 cast members and additional musicians who support the performers. All are volunteers, helping the beneficiary make as much money off the event as possible. 

“You’ve got to find the people that are willing to do a lot for nothing. And, you know, not a lot of people want to do that,” Falzano says. “I respect that, I really do, but no one in their right mind does this.”

The Caring Music Group played its last show of the year at St. Christopher Church, but they have fallen into a pattern of doing shows primarily in the autumn after wrapping up their weekly rehearsals in September and October. 

“We would like to continue doing it. I think it’s a need for anybody in any place throughout the ages and into the future,” Falzano says. “People are always looking for hope. So, just go out and give it to them.”

Jess Williams is a Beacon contributing writer and former intern.

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