During any given summer, Interlochen Center for the Arts schedules 15-18 concerts as part of its annual Interlochen Arts Festival. The live music series brings big-name artists to northern Michigan and helps fund scholarships for Interlochen Arts Camp and Arts Academy students. In most cases, those concerts proceed as normal live music engagements: The artist arrives at Interlochen, loads their gear into the venue, plays a show, tears down, and heads on their way. Every once in a while, though, Interlochen Arts Festival performers go out of their way to interact directly with students – providing young artists with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities in the process.

Such will be the case tonight (Sunday), when three young songwriters from the Interlochen Arts Academy student body take the stage to open for John Ondrasik – the singer, songwriter, and pianist better known by his stage name, Five for Fighting. The students, all of whom live locally, will perform a seven-song set of original compositions ahead of Ondrasik’s headlining performance.

Five for Fighting became a household name in the early 2000s thanks to the mainstream radio success of piano-led hits like “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” and “100 Years.” The former, which peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, became a rallying cry in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and skyrocketed Five for Fighting to fame. In the years since, Ondrasik has continued to tour and make music under the Five for Fighting name. He's also become a noted philanthropist and humanitarian, doing work to help the peoples of Afghanistan and Ukraine and supporting a variety of other charitable organizations.

Ondrasik previously played at Interlochen in 2014 and asked the school for student openers on that occasion, as well. Per Courtney Kaiser-Sandler, associate director of contemporary music and collaborative programs for Interlochen, both students who performed with Five for Fighting back then “have gone on to successful careers in the music industry: Lauren Jones of the rising band Trousdale and Rett Madison, who just signed her first record deal with Warner Records.” Several other Interlochen Arts Festival performers have also shared the stage with students over the years, including Guster, OK Go, and Ray LaMontagne.

When asked why it was important to him to extend this type of offer to young artists, Ondrasik tells The Ticker he’s got a whole laundry list of reasons. For one thing, he has a huge fondness for arts institutions like Interlochen. A classically-trained musician who studied opera when he was young, Ondrasik also has a daughter who attended an Interlochen-like musical theatre program called Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in New York. For another, Ondrasik still remembers his days as a young up-and-coming performer and songwriter, when a string of serendipitous opportunities and unlikely mentors helped him get a foot in the door. When the opportunity presents itself, he likes to pay those favors forward.

“It’s hard to find audiences,” Ondrasik notes. “And as a young songwriter, it's really important that you play in front of people who are not your friends, who are not your peers, who are not your parents. Because that's really what helps you grow as a songwriter, and as a performer, and as an entertainer. You learn very quickly what's working with your songs and what might need some adjustment. At the end of the day, every young artist just wants to be heard and to be given a chance. So, for [these three songwriters] to be able to play their songs in front of a thousand people, that’s huge.”

The magnitude of the opportunity isn’t lost on the young songwriters who will be opening Ondrasik’s show tonight.

“What he’s doing, giving young students an opportunity to showcase their music, it’s so kind, because it’s often really hard to get into this scene,” says Clara Devey, an Interlochen resident and recent Interlochen Arts Academy graduate who plays piano, guitar, and horn and releases original music under the name clara bryn. (In June, Devey was one of 15 local graduates featured as part of The Ticker’s spotlight on the class of 2023.) At Interlochen, Devey says songwriters are given plenty of opportunities to perform – including at a showcase held annually at the Traverse City Opera House. But shows that allow for longer sets, bigger crowds, or impartial audiences are hard to come by.

This summer, Devey and two of her younger Interlochen classmates – sophomore Audrey Mason and junior Zinnia Dungjen – performed together in downtown Traverse City as part of the National Cherry Festival. Mason and Dungjen, who live locally and make music together as a band called A to Z, will join Devey again this evening for the Five for Fighting show.

Together, Devey, Mason, and Dungjen have put together a seven-song set, featuring two originals from each songwriter as well as a song that Mason and Dungjen wrote together with another Interlochen student. According to Mason, who plays both guitar and cello, the three songwriters will play all seven songs together as a band. “We all wrote accompaniments and parts for each other on our songs,” she says.

In addition to the performance itself, Ondrasik is hopeful that he and his band will have time before soundcheck to do a Q&A with Devey, Mason, Dungjen and other Interlochen students. Dungjen is particularly excited about that opportunity, and says she has a question locked and loaded just in case she as the chance to ask it.

“I’d ask how you pursue music as a career, but still find a way to love it like you would love a hobby,” she says. “I think it can be really easy for people to go into music and then lose their love for it a little bit, which is a really tragic thing. So, I’d definitely ask them how you combat that, and how they find balance in their lives so that doesn't happen.”

One of Ondrasik’s biggest tips to up-and-coming songwriters, meanwhile, relates precisely to that topic.

“Always remember to enjoy it,” he says. “Enjoy making music: the process, the times you have with friends, the moment in the studio where you hear your song for the first time, completed. Try to always find that joy that made you want to do this in the first place, and always keep a little of that fire burning.”

Devey promises that she, Dungjen, and Mason won't have a hard time heeding that advice tonight.

“We are so excited, and so grateful,” she says. “We will absolutely be soaking in every moment of it.”

Tonight’s concert starts at 7:30pm at Corson Auditorium on the Interlochen campus. Tickets are available online.

Pictured: Upper left, John Ondrasik performing as Five for Fighting; upper right, Clara Devey performing as clara bryn; bottom, Zinnia Dungjen and Audrey Mason as A to Z.