By Kevin Greer
Lakeside Communications Manager
It’s never an easy task for an organization to fill a vacant role. It’s more difficult to replace a person who is so respected in the community like Shirley Stary in Lakeside. Matt Charboneau is experienced, qualified and ready for the challenge.
Charboneau is Lakeside’s new Director of Performing Arts & Entertainment. Stary has held the position for the past 19 years and will have a part-time programming consultant role with Lakeside for a few months before retiring. Charboneau said he’s repeatedly heard the phrase “big shoes to fill,” but it’s something he’s ready to take on.
“Nearly 20 years anywhere is remarkable, especially in the nonprofit and art sectors where people move around every three years or so,” Charboneau said. “Shirley is training me well. She has laid a good foundation to where all the pieces are going to be in place when she moves on. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be manageable to take over.”
Charboneau comes to Lakeside having recently served as Chair for the Center for Music at The Music Settlement in Cleveland. He has over 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, management, programming and education throughout Northeast Ohio at organizations such as Beck Center for the Arts, COSE Arts Network and Roots of American Music.
Charboneau has always been drawn to music. He got an early start to playing when he joined the band in middle school. In his teens, he started listening to more rock and pop music, so the bass guitar was his instrument of choice. That eventually led to him earning a Bachelor of Music in double bass performance from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.
He freelanced professionally for 25 years and has performed regionally, nationally and internationally playing jazz, folk, bluegrass, Americana, salsa, bossa nova and Afro Cuban music. Charboneau was featured numerous times on NPR and PBS’s “Applause,” which used his jazz trio’s music as the show’s theme song.
He got involved with the arts management program at Case Western Reserve University, where he earned a Master’s of Nonprofit Organization from the university’s Weatherhead School of Management in 2005 and has been working in nonprofit arts since. With steady jobs keeping him busy, he didn’t have as much time to perform on stages.
“I still play a little bit, but not professionally anymore,” Charboneau said. “When I was in my 20s and 30s, I was playing five to six nights a week. My playing career started to sunset about five years ago, and then the pandemic put an end to that.”
Charboneau isn’t the only musician in his family. His wife, Dane Macaskill, grew up playing cello, and their 10-year-old daughter, Olive, also plays the cello.
Charboneau was born, raised and currently lives in Lakewood, Ohio. He has known about Lakeside since he was a kid because his friends visited during the summer. His family took their first vacation to Lakeside nine years ago and have rented a cottage every year since with extended family joining them.
It didn’t matter who was performing, the family went to Hoover shows Fridays and Saturdays. Other favorites include shuffleboard, pickleball, tennis, the waterfront and pool. Charboneau likes to take a bike ride just before it gets dark, but he sometimes makes a quick stop before pedaling the streets.
“Sometimes I have a soft serve in my hand,” Charboneau said. “I just do as many laps as I can around the perimeter and then go to bed.”
When the Director of Performing Arts & Entertainment position opened, Charboneau thought it would be a great opportunity for him personally and professionally. It’s a community he knows well after several vacations and a place he can use his previous experience in nonprofits while learning something new. He looks forward to producing concerts, working directly with performers and attending conferences to find talent that fits Lakeside.
“After spending time here with my family, I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to work here?’” Charboneau said.
He understands there are many different entertainment interests among Lakesiders, so his goal is to mix it up as much as possible.
“It’s tricky to book something for everybody,” Charboneau said. “There are thousands of people here during the summer and not everybody has the same taste in music or entertainment. I think it has to be approachable and presented in the right way. I’ll be looking for high quality, entertaining, family-friendly and interesting shows that hopefully everybody likes.”
Charboneau is not only excited to book big-name performers for Hoover Auditorium, but local and regional talent for the Pavilion and Steele Memorial Bandstand. Girl Named Tom performed on the Pavilion just a couple months before hitting instant stardom when they were crowned winners of NBC’s “The Voice.”
“What’s interesting about this job is there’s some ability to book up and coming acts,” Charboneau said. “We’re in that cool position where they might come here and play and become stars and we could say, ‘Hey, we knew them when…’”
