Sounds of the Season's 25th concert features past performances

The 25th annual Sounds of the Season concert, sponsored by SoutheastHEALTH Foundation, will be a bit different this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather than the usual live performance, this year’s event will be a televised version of past performances hand-picked by the event’s creator, Jerry Ford.

“I went back for the last three years and looked at all the videos,” Ford said. “I then decided who to feature based on the quality of their performance. (I chose) different kinds of acts that have a variety of different musical styles to come up with something I thought people would enjoy.“

Ford started the annual benefit concert in 1995 to honor his younger brother, Don, who was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Ford and his brother became close through their shared love of music and performing together.

“We were close, extremely close,” Ford said, “because music, among other things, was kind of the main draw for both of us. We had a lot of fun, and accomplished a lot of good things in music. That was why we ended up being as close as we were.

“Through all of his time and all of my time, we still performed on weekends together. That was, I guess, the glue that kept us so close was music.”

Since its inception, the event has raised more than $600,000 for the Southeast Cancer Care Fund, which provides transportation, lodging, nutritional supplements and other potential needs to patients at Southeast Cancer Center.

“Honestly, the money is important, but we didn’t do it for that reason. We did it to honor Don,” Ford said. “What really made me feel good over the years was so many people use this as sort of the beginning, that first Sunday in December, kind of started the beginning of the Christmas season for them. And many of the people who gave substantial monies were people who were honoring their family member who either had cancer or at some point passed away from cancer.”

This year’s concert will feature footage of past performances from Jerry Ford Orchestra, Clay Hahs, Casey Janet Mills, Christen Schweain, The Brothers Walker, Dr. Andrew Moore, Brodrick Twiggs and more. Crystal Britt and Justin Fischer, anchors of KFVS12’s “The Breakfast Show,” will emcee the event.

Sounds of the Season will air at 10:35 p.m. Dec. 24 and at 5 and 6 a.m. Dec. 25 on KFVS12, and at 9 p.m. Dec. 20 and 7 a.m. Dec. 25 on WQWQ.

For more information, contact SoutheastHEALTH Foundation at (573) 519-4922.