Welcome...

to the homepage of
Charlie Matkin

I am a singing actor and lecturer.

I am represented by the agent Becky Hale at HaleTalent.

To go to specific areas of my history, click on the underlined subjects below:

I find that some of the links are not working, but I am in the process of fixing them.

(If you have problems with any of my links, please bear with me. I am
currently rebuilding several pages.)

Updated September 20, 2008

Harps Beaucoup

Opera post Katrina

Music activities post Katrina

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Good times/Bad times

I arrived in New Orleans in 1961, planning to stay a short time and then head for the west coast to pursue a career as a professional singer. Instead, I got a job at a radio station and became a chorister with the New Orleans Opera Association. I have sung in several operas over the years but not on a regular basis until after hurricane Katrina in 2005. Since then I have been in the Domingo Gala, La Boheme, Faust, Rigoletto and am currently in rehearsals for Manon Lescaut, which will be performed in late October.

I once sang on "Tonight With Mel" on WDSU-TV: Gigi
Charlie Weaver (Cliff Arquette) was a guest on the show.
When I finished singing, he compared me to Earl Wrightson, one of my idols.
A couple of years later, I was Wrightson's understudy in a Summer Stock production of "Camelot".

I hope to add some more songs to this page in the near future. In addition to the album of show tunes I recorded
with the Ronnie Kole Trio, I have songs that I sang or "lip-synced" on TV, plus some that were recorded at home.

I have put together a one radio hour program about the harp:

(It may take a while to download after you click on it, If you don't have an audio program, go to realaudio.com for a free download)

Magic of the Harp

My wife Jean and I owned and operated the

Several years ago, I joined Toastmasters and I've have given lectures on Old Time Radio to retirement
homes, church and Senior Citizens groups, an AARP chapter and the D-Day/World War 2 Museum. Hopefully, there will be life as a professional speaker now that I have retired from the hotel business). In the near future, I will be adding to this web page the speeches I have made so far.

My Early Years

My Parents

My Family

Family History

Schools

When I first came to New Orleans I lived and sang in the French Quarter:

French Quarter Nights

I was in

BROADCASTING

I have traveled the U.S. & Canada with various performing groups and have sung leading roles in Summer Stock as well as in local productions. I have appeared on many radio and television programs as well as in radio and television commercials.

ON THE ROAD

There is a lot to the idea of things being better the second time around, as I found when I came back to

New Orleans again.

Family ties have become increasingly important as the years go by. I became interested in genealogy several years back and have been able to contribute some information to the Matkins Information Center in Montana. It was a surprise to learn that there are several hundred Matkin(s) families in the U.S. & Canada. On a trip to England a few years ago, we met with several Matkin families. More recently, I learned that the name is popular in the Ukraine and possibly originated in Russia. The word for mother in russian is "Mat".

You can reach me at my primary EMAIL

My Deceased Son


Jean is a former model and television weather program hostess and commercial spokesperson. She is also a talented harpist.



Several years ago, a group of professional actors and/or broadcasters got together to re-create old time radio scripts as a fund-raiser for WRBH-FM, Radio for the Blind in New Orleans. This led to the creation of a non-profit organization, New Orleans Radio Theatre, Inc., of which I was a co-founder and am now President and Executive Producer. We have recently been involved in a project to create a Radio & TV Museum in New Orleans. However, that appears to be an idea whose time has NOT come. We have closed down the project. Very sad not to have gotten any funding or enough interest to continue.
We have a new web page, however. Go to the link for the virtual museum after clicking http://www.neworleansradiotheatre.org/

My SECONDARY email address: matkin@mail.com

Paul Yacich