Cindi Scheffler

Cindi Scheffler once was apprehensive about doing karaoke in front of other people, but today she is one of the most sought-after musicians in the Twin Cities.

For years, Cindi sang for the elderly, her voice a reprieve for geriatrics whose sole concern each day was not money or acclaim, but peace, and with her sultry, soothing, and harmonious vocals, Cindi was the conduit for that tranquility.

“I had over 100 different retirement homes throughout the Twin Cities,” she says of her past book of business, “and I continued to do that for 30 years.”

Eventually, Cindi, despite using her musical gifts to bring joy to countless Minnesotans, grew tired of her tours around the metro, so she shifted to playing the piano, an instrument she had learned to play when she was a little girl.

“Then I started getting into the bar scene,” she notes, a dry martini or Grey Goose on the rocks the perfect libation to further allow one to become mesmerized by Cindi’s acoustics.

Chances are, if you appreciate a well-crafted cocktail, and if you spend your weekends scouring local venues for undiscovered musical talent, you have heard Cindi Scheffler perform.

What’s ironic about this is Cindi, for all her endeavors, is extremely humble.

So humble that when I reached out for an interview, she didn’t see herself as deserving of the spotlight.

“I think there’s a story there,” I tell her via phone, she in majestic Florida basking in the sun, me still trapped in the doldrums of Minnesota’s lengthy winter.

“Oh, well you go right ahead and document it,” she says with a laugh as I turn on my recording device, “but it’s not like I am a big American Idol star or something.”

Sure, Simon Cowell never lambasted Cindi on national television, but perhaps that’s only because Cindi took the more noble, and ultimately more fulfilling route by opting to prioritize marriage and children over seeing if she had what it takes to headline tours around the United States.

For her part, Cindi wonders what the path not taken may have entailed, as all humans are wont to do, but she harbors no regrets over her decision.

In turn, she will never draw comparisons to other iconic Minnesota artists like Prince or Lil Uzi Vert (kidding on the Uzi), and that’s okay.

Her presence still reverberates around the Twin Cities.

“It might not feel grandiose, but there have been times when people say they know me because they saw me sing somewhere,” she says.

“When that happens, all of a sudden, you feel like a star,” she then gushes.

Still, there is a theme to be explored here.

It’s the plight many women (and to a degree men) pursuing greatness in the arts face.

Marriage, children, familial legacy, or…

The road less traveled, filled with lonely nights, excruciating agony, longing gazes at the sky, internal questioning over whether a big break will come and all the sacrifice can deemed “worth it.”

“Perhaps we didn’t get to see my highest potential because I shared my career with being a mom,” Cindi says, with emphasis on the word sharing because she did not abandon her dreams; only redirected them.

“Had I taken a different route, I feel like I could have gone to a conservatory or made it on Broadway.”

But then you look at all those starlets who did indeed enter the public view and lexicon, and one would be remiss to not ask if their time in the limelight was more damaging than empowering.

Fortunately for Cindi, she had support in the form of a husband who encouraged her to see her numerous treks to nursing homes not as a willing sacrifice, but as something so much more.

“You are using your gift, and you are singing for a purpose,” Cindi recalls being told by her husband, and he’s right, because while a music connoisseur in Boston may not know the name Cindi Scheffler, many of the elderly residing in our neighborhoods can vividly remember her music bringing tears to their eyes.

At the end of the day, it’s all about impact.

When COVID entered the fray, Cindi’s work with nursing homes quickly dissipated, relationships and contacts lost when key staff from various facilities retired, rendering Cindi a relative unknown to the spring chickens who assumed those vacated roles.

Consequently, Cindi’s schedule was more open than a Taco Bell drive-thru at midnight.

This hiatus turned out to be a blessing though, as it allowed Cindi to spend more time with her ailing mother during the final years of her life.

Alas, the music gods give, and the music gods take.

Not that Cindi is complaining.

“If I don’t see another nursing or retirement home again, it will be too soon,” she cracks, because she has moved on, currently playing at Crooner’s, a renowned jazz club in Minneapolis.  

“That [getting booked at Crooner’s] is a huge success for me, even at the tender age of 65,” jokes arguably Minnesota’s most hidden gem, her imprint not as pervasive simply because she is not as well marketed or advertised as other Twin Cities performers.

Still, it’s not about notoriety.

Art takes precedence over approbation, and so too does inspiring the next wave of local talent, a group that includes her son Mike, who was once featured on this platform.

“Mike is very creative,” Cindi says.  

“He does his own thing. He doesn’t care one hoot whether people like his music or not. He just puts it out there and has no qualms about that.”

Adds Cindi:

“Me on the other hand, I wrote a song during COVID, and I felt like I was opening up my diary to the world. I must come from an older generation, where privacy is more prioritized.”

In my experience, it’s personality that dictates high art.

Some people can’t or don’t want to go that deep, but great art doesn’t originate in the comforts of the mundane or unimaginative.

Rather, it’s birthed from a fearless soul, from a place where the pursuit is truly nothing other than capturing the purest form of authenticity.

Go out and create.

You will be judged, but it’s at that point you will realize that you are doing what you must.

“It’s great to just go out there and not listen to any of the feedback,” Cindi says, so remember that next time your drink has arrived and Cindi takes center stage. QS

**

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