‘Sharing the Stage’ reunion concert to honor Harris Levinson

Sharing the Stage, a long-running youth music and mentorship nonprofit, will bring together young artists for its “Home for the Holidays V” alumni concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21 at Open Space for Arts & Community.

This year’s show reunites 21 former student performers from the program’s 15-year history, many of whom are traveling from around the country and even the world — including New York City, Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Japan — to take the stage at Open Space.

The first four editions of Sharing the Stage’s “Home for the Holidays” series were held in Seattle venues, Chop Suey and The Crocodile. But there is a special reason the annual concert will be staged on Vashon this year.

It will also serve as a tribute to the life and legacy of Harris Levinson, a beloved island teacher and youth mentor who co-founded Sharing the Stage in 2009 — guiding and inspiring countless students and audiences along the way. Levinson died on June 23, from injuries sustained in a fall while on a solo hiking trip in the Sierra Nevada range in California.

“Harris brought such joy and passion to his work with Sharing the Stage,” said Fred Strong, who with Levinson and Rob Bordner also co-founded the program. “He was a teacher, a performing artist, and a fan of the music scene — and all arts and letters. This project was a natural arena for him nurture and celebrate the creative work of young artists who were finding an identity that they would then carry into their adulthood.”

Bordner described Levinson’s involvement in the project as pivotal to its success.

“Harris had this beautiful smile that immediately spoke to love and trust,” he said. “But he also had this way of looking at you that conveyed honesty and a Boston-style directness before he even spoke. With this, he could simultaneously empathize with the students and challenge them to step up — in a way that was likely the envy of any parent.”

Many alumni performing this year worked closely with Harris, either in the classroom at VHS, during shows, or both. These include Kate Atwell and Quinn McTighe, who helped organize this year’s concert, said Strong.

McTighe, reach by phone, recalled how Levinson had provided deep support to not only him but other Sharing the Stage youth musicians as well.

“He always treated us as equals, and was also on a learning path himself,” said McTighe.

Performances this year will range from soloists to full bands — continuing to chart the creative lives of past Sharing the Stage participants, whether they are pursuing music careers or simply making music for the joy of it.

Two performers, Jasper Hanowell and Skyler Ford, were part of the very first Sharing the Stage concert, where they opened for the band Visqueen. Eight years after that show, Skyler returned to the project to headline Sharing the Stage shows with his own band Snuff Redux (2018 and 2020), and he has returned multiple times as a rehearsal mentor, continuing the cycle of inter-generational artistry that defines the program.

The full list of performers at the Dec. 21 concert, in addition to McTighe, Atwell, Hanowell and Ford, includes Noah Baseleon-Abbott; Wyatt Bates; Dimitrius Brown; Mia Christ; Ben Estuardo; Graham Hazzard; Simon Grant; Chick Green; Payton Lieske; Calvin Lundin; Aidan Morrison; Iris Olympia; Elina Poll; Maijah Sanson-Frey; Kai Scheer; Maya Solirah; and Josh Teicher.

These performers are now a part of Sharing the Stage history — becoming part of a multi-generational musical community and culture that helps gives young people the chance to discover who they want to be.

Bordner — reflecting on the legacy of Sharing the Stage and the work of his co-founders — said he still believed Sharing the Stage was “an incredibly magical thing that came together when it did.”

“Perhaps it only could have come together in a community like Vashon,” he said.

Harris Levinson (far left), checking his lists outside the door of Open Space at a 2012 “Sharing the Stage” show that paired island student opening acts with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. (Jeff Dunnicliff Photo)