Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Von Trapps to perform at Lynch home to benefit Piano Hospital

The hills are still alive with that totally timeless sound, you know — “the songs they have sung for a thousand years.”

The sound may be timeless, but it’s also been updated since 1965, which is when the blockbuster film “The Sound of Music” made famous a small library of classic songs — from “Do-Re-Mi” to “Climb Every Mountain,” not to mention that jazzy one about raindrops and kittens — along with the unlikely story of the stunningly harmonious von Trapp family and their adventures during World War II.

That celebrated tale is actually highly fictionalized — the real story began much earlier than the war, and the von Trapps never had to flee over the Alps but instead departed comfortably by train — but the proto-band of amazingly musical children was quite real. Eventually billed as “The Trapp Family Choir” and “The Trapp Family Singers,” their career reached quite a pinnacle after they came to America — backing up Elvis Presley on a Christmas record in the 1950s — before they went their separate ways.

Music never faded from the von Trapp genes, though, and today the great-grandchildren of Georg Ritter von Trapp (and step-great-grandchildren of Maria von Trapp) remain stunningly harmonious.

They were children when they started singing together, and you can find some charming babyfaced — and even lederhosened — videos of them on YouTube, performing everything from “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and “Amazing Grace” to standards from “The Sound of Music.” More recently, though, the grown-up von Trapps — Sofia, Melanie, Amanda and August, all in their mid-20s now — started sharing stages with Portland supergroup Pink Martini, and eventually relocated to the Rose City. (So you could even say that those still-alive hills now are the ones around Portland and Clark County.) Tonight is the second of their two-night run with Pink Martini at McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, Ore.

But here’s a more intimate, local opportunity to absorb that special sound: The von Trapps will bring their shapely harmonies to the private west Vancouver home of the late Lynches, Ed and Dollie, on the evening of Sept. 17. The house concert isn’t cheap — tickets begin at $50 (including “heavy hors d’ oeuvres and informal seating”) — but the beneficiary is our own local School of Piano Technology for the Blind, aka the Piano Hospital, which is always looking for support as it trains sight-impaired people to tune and maintain pianos.

“My parents loved the city of Vancouver and the people and places that make it such a wonderful place … and one of those very unique things is the School of Piano Technology for the Blind,” said Michael Lynch, son of Dollie and Ed, who died in 2010 and in May, respectively. “Prior to Dad’s passing, he was so pleased to have been a part of the planning for this event and to offer the use of their beautiful home for the performance. I hope you will join us on Sept. 17.”

For details about the concert and to purchase tickets, contact the Piano Hospital at 360-693-1511 or www.pianotuningschool.org.

Bits ‘n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com.