When Interlink Volunteers hosted its first Ultimate Christmas Concert last year, Executive Director Ray Rosch was in for a surprise.
Six hundred people attended, raising almost $5,000 for the volunteer caregiver program that helps the elderly live independently in their own homes.
“My wife said, ‘You’ve got to open these doors,’ ” Rosch said, forcing him to peek out of the Clarkston High School auditorium before the show started. “I could see nothing but people. It was a thundering herd of buffalo. I hoped for 200, we got 600.”
This Saturday, Rosch said they’ll try it again, with bluegrass band Wanigan, a cappella group Grace Notes, Tri-Tones jazz trio and soprano vocalist Frances Hasenoehrl.
Lewiston High School seniors Cody Chenault and Cole Kopczynski, along with junior Thomas Pearson, make up Tri-Tones, a trio that plays jazz standards as well as Latin and funk.
“We are just a couple high school kids trying to have fun with jazz,” said singer and keyboardist Pearson.
The three joined together after playing in the percussion section of the Lewiston High School jazz band, and have played house parties, the Idaho State Veterans Home, Jazzy’s in Towne Square and an Edward Jones Christmas party. But the Ultimate Christmas Concert is new for the trio.
“We usually play background music, and this is actually a full-fledged concert,” Pearson said.
Pearson has composed a few jazz pieces himself, and hopes to experiment with more songs. Recently, he combined a B-flat major Bach prelude with “O come, O come, Emmanuel” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.”
“And it totally works ... If you can find the chordal qualities and tones to this, you can make it into a jazz thing,” he said. “That’s what’s cool about music, is it’s all relevant.”
Pianist Thomas Schumacher will welcome audience members into the Clarkston High School auditorium with music on the grand piano before the concert starts.
“If we have one person show up, like with Interlink, if we enhance the life of one person, we’ve succeeded,” Rosch said.
But with last year’s numbers, it’s looking like more than a few seats will be filled.
Treffry can be contacted at (208) 883-4640 or ltreffry@inland360.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTreffry.
->if you go: WHAT: Interlink’s Ultimate Christmas Concert WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday WHERE: Clarkston High School auditorium, 401 Chestnut St., Clarkston COST: Tickets are $15, and can be purchased at Schurman’s Hardware and Wasem’s Drugs in Clarkston, and Rosauers Grocery and His Story Christian Gift in Lewiston.
