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In a time when it seems as though you can't escape corporate-sponsored concert tours, football stadiums and even fashion shows, John Tosco stands alone.
Three times a year, his Tosco Music Party is the hottest ticket in town, regularly selling out the Dale F. Halton Theater at Central Piedmont Community College – without the help of big business.
The party, which celebrates its 20th anniversary tonight, is a place where musicians from a wide variety of genres come together to perform, simply for the love of music. For four hours, about 20 amateur and professional acts will get on stage and play two songs each – and none of them gets paid a dime.
Tosco, 50, says he never imagined the party would achieve such success and longevity when he and his wife, Holly, started it as a small monthly gathering in his living room.
“It was an incredible grass-roots thing where people kept coming out of the woodwork with friends and family members,” he says.
Tosco's longtime friend, John Richards, was one of the original partygoers.
“We'd squeeze about 20 or 30 people into his living room,” recalls the 50-year-old North Charlotte resident. “Everyone would bring their own beer and snacks and we'd sit around and play some music.”
Gradually, Tosco's East Charlotte home became too small, and the party was moved to bigger and bigger venues – including an apartment complex's clubhouse, a VFW hall, the Great Aunt Stella Center and McGlohon Theatre, among others. Three years ago, it landed at its largest yet: the 1,020-seat Halton.
“The key is getting people to come to their first show,” Tosco says. “Once they come, they're hooked.”
Lynn Farris, a freelance writer who has covered the Charlotte music scene for more than 10 years, attributes its popularity to the variety of acts Tosco recruits, from gospel singers to bluegrass bands.
“It's like going to a buffet,” she says. “You get to sample so much different music. Every time I've been it's been really cool to be exposed to so many different things under one roof for one ticket price.”
When Tosco isn't teaching guitar lessons at his music studio in East Charlotte on Albemarle Road, he's working all year to put together his lineups.
“One of my most important jobs is to put together the best program I can, which reflects all different styles of music … (and mixes) amateurs in with professionals and different age ranges,” says Tosco, who has extended his brand to include a monthly open-mic night at the NoDa club Evening Muse and a yearly Tosco Music Party for kids at ImaginOn uptown.
Saturday's show includes a 9-year-old singer; a man who plays the kora, a 21-string harp lute from West Africa; justincase, a pop-rock band comprising Tosco's three adult children; an ethnic folk group; and Adrienne Vaulx, the 2008 winner of “Gimme the Mike! Charlotte,” a talent show run by WSOC TV.
And you never know when you might see a local legend. Several noteworthy acts have performed at past concerts, including Concord's the Avett Brothers and country guitarist and composer Arthur Smith.
But whether the acts are big or small, Tosco loves introducing them to a new audience. When the lights go down, he says, “it's like Christmas morning for me.”
