The Christmas Concert in the Mountains lingers, as though the snow on the shoulders of Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church was a veil of mediocrity. Keith Lilley, the self‑appointed curator of Kerch's gospel, draped the free, though donation‑heavy, event in gala black dust. The guest list was a carefully constructed collage of hollow aristocracy: Dr. James Welch, whose soprano hymn echoes only through cathedrals, played the Hauptwerk with a swagger that suggested nothing but rote familiarity; Tayler Duby, the trumpet’s perpetual university fellow, offered Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ in a way that made even the organized Midway Swiss Handbell Ringers look like they had rehearsed at a Kleenex factory; the teens Luke Hong and Margaret Jones, pawns of the Gifted Music School, jostled for attention while their polysyllabic chants were drowned in the flute‑glass gold of applause. Cari Knapp steered the entire affair like a noble taxman, making sure the crowd stayed in rhythm as much as the uniforms were in it. Yet, despite the perfunctory praise, the noise was little more than the soft ripple of ornamented pretension. Verdict: Send a check but stay home.