For Skyler Ford, a rocker who has made a name for himself in the Seattle music scene and beyond, an appearance on Vashon tomorrow night will be part of an unbroken circle of music.

Ford’s band, Snuff Redux, is headlining the 19th edition of the Sharing the Stage, a much-loved local concert series that pairs professional musicians with student opening acts. But this isn’t the first time Ford has played a Sharing the Stage show.

Eight years ago, as a Vashon High School commuter student, Ford and his band, Buffalo Thunder, opened for the band Visqueen at the debut presentation of Sharing the Stage. It’s a first for the concert series to have a former student player come back as a headliner.

“It’s a big moment for me,” Ford said in a phone interview. “It will be so cool to return to the same place and see the same energy in a different generation. … It’s like seeing a younger version of myself.”

Ford’s enthusiasm for the Sharing the Stage series and concert was echoed by another band member, Daniel Chesney, who also grew up on Vashon.

Chesney said he had mostly pursued visual art in high school, not becoming fully immersed in music until his college years. But he said he wished he had been able to take part in something like “Sharing the Stage” as a younger artist.

“I think there was an institutional version of art,” Chesney said, recalling his high school years. “Nobody urged you to go your own way — it’s something I wish I’d had earlier.”

In the weeks preceding the show, Ford, Chesney and another Snuff Redux band member, Dylan Arlick, came to Vashon twice to attend rehearsals and serve as mentors for the student openers. This group of teens, chosen by audition, includes Frosty and Jacob Bowden, Dimitrius Brown, Emmett Sherman, Omar Peck and a jazz trio made up of Theo Newcomb, Simon Grant and Aidan Clare.

Ford said he was impressed by the group’s musicianship.

“There is a lot of really great talent, and it’s going to be a great show,” he said. “I wasn’t on that level when I was their age.”

After the student acts take the stage on Friday, it will be showtime for Snuff Redux, who are returning to the island for their second gig within months after playing at Vashon’s Strawberry Festival.

The band formed in 2013 and in 2015 released an EP that got heavy rotation on 90.3 KEXP. But it has only been recently that the group has fully matured, releasing their first album, “Denim American” — available now on Spotify and other music platforms — which was followed by a national tour.

Ford described the group’s music as having “raw emotion and tight songwriting and musicality — we love pop music but we are rock.”

Waxing more eloquent, he added a poetic description of the sound audiences can expect on Friday.

“It’s the sound of a late summer night, bonfires crackling, ocean waves crashing, it’s the sound of a radio from the past and the future,” he said. “Also, there are guitars.”

Sharing the Stage was launched in 2010 by islanders Rob Bordner, Fred Strong and Harris Levinson. Bordner and Strong were island parents who wanted to affirm the talent of local teens by giving them the experience of playing in a professional context, but still in front of an adoring hometown crowd. Harris, a teacher at Vashon High School at the time, was a connection to talented students, including Ford.Acclaimed bands who have traveled to Vashon for the series include Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, The Blue Scholars and Tacocat.

In the intervening years, Strong expanded the project to include Seattle shows, and now, has stepped away from producing the Vashon shows. The series’ new wranglers are Allison Shirk and Pete Welch, of Vashon Events, who have strong ties to the music communities in Seattle and Vashon. Tara and Rick Vanselow, who are a VHS guidance counselor and local musician, respectively, are also part of the team.

Tara Vanselow said she is excited to be involved.

“For Rick and me, it’s a love of music and a love of youth,” she explained. “I just love giving them opportunities to shine and have mentors in their lives and different ventures.”

Noting that the current crop of opening acts are all male this year, she said she hoped to encourage more girls to audition for future editions of “Sharing the Stage.” She noted that the series encourages youth to perform their own music — something she would like to see more girls doing.

Vanselow has attended almost all of the past Sharing the Stage concerts, including one in which her son, Abe, performed as an opening act. The crowds at the concerts, she said, have been electric.

“All the youth all come out and are so supportive of their peers,” she said.

“Sharing the Stage” will happen at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, at Red Bicycle Bistro & Sushi. Tickets are $7 for students and $12 for adults. For more information on Sharing the Stage, visit www.sharingthestage.com.