MCDERMOTT'S `RETURN TO SCOTLAND'
Publication: Richmond
Times-Dispatch
Byline: Tom Netherland
Date: 03-27-2003
Edition:
City
Section: Area/State
Fortune
does not shine upon us all. Regardless of age, gender or race, life's
eight ball rolls as it wishes.
Send in the miracle workers.
Irish Tenor John McDermott and the St. Andrews Society of
Richmond are among North America's many charitable souls. Next week,
the two combine forces for McDermott's concert, "A Return to
Scotland," at the Carpenter Center as part of a regionwide
celebration of Scottish culture.
McDermott, an original
member of The Irish Tenors currently on leave from the group, cut his
usual price by about 20 percent, St. Andrews' President Bill
Swackhamer said. For its part, the Scottish- themed organization will
donate proceeds to five charities.
"That's the amazing
aspect of it," McDermott said by phone from Nashville on Friday.
"All the proceeds - not half or a percentage - all of the
proceeds they get from this goes right back to the charities, which
is great. It stays right within that community, which is fabulous."
Andrew's Buddies, the Children's Hospital of Richmond, the
Children's Hospital of Edinburgh, the Museum of American Frontier
Culture in Staunton and the St. Andrews Legion Pipes and Drums Band
will benefit from the concert's proceeds.
"We need to
sell about 1,300 seats to get the fees for the artist, to get the
fees for the advertising and the fees for the venue," Swackhamer
said.
Given that tickets retail for $49.50 each, 400 tickets
above the break-even point would cull nearly $20,000. That's quite a
step above the society's previous fund-raising efforts, which have
included bake sales and sales of cook books.
"Somebody
said we ought to put on a concert," Swackhamer said. "So we
thought, why not get one of The Irish Tenors down here?"
Not
just any singer, mind you. Rewind to 1991. Then-36-year-old McDermott
worked as a circulation manager for the Toronto Sun newspaper.
An
amateur singer since childhood, he recorded an album as a gift for
his parents' 50th wedding anniversary. A copy found its way to
executives at EMI Records in Canada and faster than you can say
"Danny Boy," McDermott was on a major record label.
In
the decade since, the Scottish-born singer has found fame, has sold
millions of albums and has toured the world.
But McDermott's
had a lifelong penchant for charitable work.
"Mum went
down twice a week to the Good Shepard refuge in Toronto for 30 years
just to serve lunch to the guys," McDermott said. "Dad went
with her."
So service seems to have come naturally to
McDermott.
"Let me tell you why I do it," McDermott
said. "First, mostly because I can. When you've been given the
opportunity through the support of people that you don't know, the
general public at large who spend money at my shows, you're in a
position that you can share it with those people."
Such
a mind-set helps him maintain perspective and not, as the country
saying goes, "get above his raising."
"A lot
of people are going around out there with the Rock of Gibraltar on
their shoulder," he said. "You know, `I came from nothin'
and I got all this and I'm keepin' it.' Well, [shoot], I came from
nothin' and I got all this and I don't need it."
The
concert, Swackhamer said, " will allow us to donate about
$3,000-$5,000 to each of these charities. It's our major fund-
raising thing for the year."
And they had the good sense
to bring one of the world's finest singers.
"If you are
not moved after you hear this man sing," Swackhamer said, "you
are a coldhearted son of a gun."