by Stephen Dafoe
The Smith Music student concert series has become a summer tradition in Morinville, providing music students at all levels with an opportunity to share what they have learned and the opportunity to help the Morinville Food Bank Society. Simultaneously filling the soul with music and bellies with food is a combination that will occur during four concerts taking place June 25 to 28.
Smith Music owner Paul Smith said the concerts provide his students with the opportunity to showcase what they have learned during the preceding year, as well as the chance to see what their fellow students and teachers have learned.
“It gives the students a chance to strut their stuff and show what they’ve been working on all year,” Smith said, adding each show mixes highly-accomplished musicians, students just beginning, and those working their way between the two extremes. “We mix little kids, adults, all ages, and all technical abilities.”
Another concert series tradition will see Smith playing alongside teachers. The teachers will be playing a song by Canadian rock artists Nick Gilder and Loverboy. The two songs have been chosen because Smith Music is working on a program that would see Gilder and Loverboy’s Mike Reno mentoring music students locally and provincially.
Smith said he has been doing the student shows for more than 20 years. During that time, he has found the concert performances help students overcome their stage fright and turn a terrifying experience into the feeling one gets after riding a rollercoaster, that feeling of wanting to get back on and do it all over again.
Show times are 7 p.m. each night at Smith Music, and admission to the performances is a cash or food donation for the Morinville Food Bank Society.
