kevin richardson, former backstreet boy and platinum-selling artist, and rob gonzales, a phenomenal singer songwriter, hosted a benefit concert for the angeles clinic foundation on sunday 18th december. it was a resounding success and i feel honoured to have been involved and given the opportunity to arrange music for the show.

the location was the marquesa ballroom at the montage, beverly hills, who were also the principal sponsors of the evening’s entertainment. the audience were treated to an evening of classic christmas songs performed by kevin and rob, who were joined by the wonderful voices of gina gonzales, rob’s sister, and skyler stonestreet.

the wonderfully planned performance was accompanied by rob’s own trio consisting of sean rainey on drums, jeff maccora on bass and matt yeakley on guitar. the hollywood horns provided the tuneful wind, with paul nowell on trombone, kyle o’donnell on tenor sax and mike rocha on trumpet, while a six piece string section added the final colour with ray reinebach, zach ewald, ben mason and sue arunasalem on violins, jay terrien on viola and claire courchene on cello. yours truly played keyboards, though located off-stage because there was not enough space on the stage! a wonderful display of dancing choreographed by tara nicole hughes, renowned for her work on ‘nine’ and ‘burlesque’ was provided by linda cevallos-french, melanie lewis, kelleia sheerin, yvette tucker, chryssie whitehead and tara herself. we were even treated to a ten minute routine by veteran comedian, actor and entertainer, jack carter.

the entire production was managed by a crew from tempo entertainment headed by brian french and supported by volunteers from the ramon c. cortines school of visual and performing arts.

it was a truly memorable evening, and for my part i want to thank all the players for bringing my arrangements to life with such skill, passion and talent. but most of all it was about raising money for the angeles clinic foundation and so thanks must go not only to those who gave their time and effort in the pursuit of making it happen, driven as it was by rob and kevin, but to those who purchased tickets and came along, partook of the silent auction and an evening of fabulous entertainment.

I shall update you all on how the evening did once i have the information, but in the meantime, the warmest seasons wishes to you and your loved ones.

links to the angeles clinic foundation and others will be placed in the ‘links’ page in the coming days.