Winery rock concert Friday night produced by local student

Three musical acts will take the stage of the old barn at Gundlach Bundschu Winery tonight as the culmination of Sonoma Valley High School student Gracie Bundschu’s senior project. Posters designed by Bundschu are plastered all over town.

The concert starts at 7 p.m. and is open to all ages. Tickets are available for $15 at the door. The El Coyote taco truck will be selling food and drinks.

The Vision, a group of seniors from Marin Academy, will open the show. Bundschu describes their music as covers of a wide variety of hits with a jazzy rock feel. “Imagine if the Greatful Dead played covers,” she said.

Local singer-songwriter Kirsten Storment will follow. Storment graduated from SVHS last year and is currently a freshman at San Francisco State University. According to Bundschu, Storment is a familiar face on the Sonoma music scence as she has played at several local venues, including open mic nights at HopMonk Tavern.

The featured act is the Sonoma-based alternative rock band the Radio Fliers. “They recently released their first demo tape, and they are hoping to make a living as a band,” said Bundschu. Three are Sonoma Valley students who have put college on hold to concentrate on the band: drummer Owen Barrett, singer/guitar player Jesse Summers and guitar player Miles Hagin. They are joined by bass player Sammie Fishcer who graduated from Marin School of the Arts and now attend Ex’pression College in Emeryville.

The money raised at the “Project Tranquil” concert will support the Epilepsy Foundation. Bundschu struggled with epilepsy as a child and feels fortunate to have grown out of it. “I know that not all kids are lucky that way,” she said. “I hope that one day we will know more about the disorder. Epilepsy has a such a strong stigma attached to it, so the opportunity to raise money and awareness in a casual environment is rewarding.”

Rand Rognlien, the owner of music care service, Music Nomad, and co-founder of Vindie Wines served as Bundchu’s mentor on the project.

“I hope that by the end of the show, I will have raised several hundred dollars and learned a lot about producing a concert,” said Bundschu. “I want to go into talent or artist management in the future, and this experience seems like a great segway into the music business.” When the concert is over, Bundscu will go back to waiting to hear from colleges.

“From putting hundreds of hours into producing my this concert, I have not only learned about the music industry and production as a whole, but the importance of fundraising for such under-researched medical conditions,” said Bundschu.

Do you know of another newsworthy senior project? Contact Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.