By Lisa PAREDES

Popular singing group The Texas Tenors returns to the Foothills area for a special fundraising concert to benefit the Community Scholarship Foundation on Sunday, Dec. 21. The concert, “Deep in the Heart of Christmas,” will be held at Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium and features the three tenors and their band performing holiday favorites.

The December concert in Pasadena is The Texas Tenors first public performance in the Los Angeles area since their recent triple Emmy award-winning PBS special, “You Should Dream,” performed with the Phoenix Symphony.

Back in 2012, the Community Scholarship Foundation of La Cañada Flintridge (CSF) hosted The Texas Tenors at Lanterman Auditorium for a sold-out charity concert. The event was attended by more than 800 people and netted approximately $43,000 for the foundation’s annual scholarship awards program.

The three tenors and their band were so immensely popular, that CSF decided to have them return for another fundraising concert, explained foundation treasurer Martha Burns.

CSF awards annual scholarships totaling about $25,000 to between 15 and 25 area recipients. Scholarship grantees use the funds to help pay for post-secondary education throughout the United States at trade schools, small community colleges, large universities and even for post-graduate work, added Burns.

“The need remains fairly constant. However, as we expand the sphere of our recipients, adding Hathaway-Sycamores, The Hillside Home for Children and Five Acres, the relative interest is anticipated to increase significantly,” she said.

“We fill a critical gap. In the Foothills area, all grade school and high school students, regardless of family or financial situation, receive the best of primary and secondary education,” said CSF President Joel Peterson. “However, a number of students find, upon graduation from high school, they need financial assistance to further their post-high school education.”

“CSF gives eligible students the chance they might not otherwise have – an opportunity to further their education and have a better chance to enrich their lives in the future,” he said.

The Texas Tenors first came to national attention five years ago on “America’s Got Talent.” The group’s mixture of cowboy hats and operatic vocals propelled them to the top and they remain the highest-ranking vocal group in the show’s history.

In recent years, J.C. Fisher, Marcus Collins and John Hagen of The Texas Tenors have performed more than 700 concerts all over the world, from the concert hall of the Prague Philharmonic to the Pro Bull Riders World Championship in Las Vegas to the outdoor amphitheater at Park City’s Deer Valley Festival with the Utah Symphony.

The Texas Tenors blend country, pop and classical musical elements with humor, harmony and cowboy attitude into a program suitable for all ages.

CSF hopes the popularity of The Texas Tenors will fill the 1,285-seat Ambassador Auditorium and help fund its scholarship program for the coming two years. CSF is a non-profit organization celebrating its 50th anniversary of funding college scholarships for local youth.

Tickets and parking are available online at www.albrooks.com or by calling (818) 790-0419. A portion of the ticket’s cost is tax-deductible.

  Lisa PAREDES