Here is a feature article from the Winter, 2006 Issue

Georgia pianist to play Carnegie Hall

By Jennifer Whittaker

Georgia concert pianist Christopher Smith is about to get a larger audience.

Smith, who is employed by the Sea Island Company and performs as a featured artist at the company’s hotel properties five nights a week, will debut at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 5.

Concert pianist Christopher Smith will give a debut concert at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall on Feb. 5. Georgia Farm Bureau members are privileged to hear Smith perform each year at the organization’s annual convention.
Smith is set to perform a concert of classical music including works by composers Chopin, Moscowsky, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Rimsky-Korsakoff, and Beethoven in the 268-seat Weill Recital Hall. Smith will be presented by MidAmerica Productions which has brought more than 600 concerts in New York to the stages of Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center.

“Getting to play at Carnegie is a dream come to pass. I’ve dreamed about this since I was a little boy,” Smith said. “I’m blessed to be able to do what I love.”

For the past five years the Brunswick resident has provided the soundtrack for Georgia Farm Bureau’s annual convention. He’s played gospel music and hymns during the Vespers Service, showtunes and classic standards for the General Session and Awards Program and Christmas songs during the Women’s Lunch. Georgia Farm Bureau is one of the sponsors of Smith’s Carnegie concert and will be recognized in the concert program.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing for the Farm Bureau convention, and I’m very appreciative that Georgia Farm Bureau is one of my sponsors. The support that Farm Bureau has given me has helped me realize a dream to put on this concert,” Smith said.

During his career, Smith has performed for Hollywood stars, Middle Eastern Kings and numerous foreign diplomats and dignitaries. When the G-8 Summit was held on Sea Island in 2004, Smith performed for President Bush and the international leaders and spouses attending the summit. Later that year, he was invited to perform at the White House on two separate occasions during the Christmas Holidays. Smith was invited back to perform at the White House during the 2005 Christmas season.

Smith took the initiative to contact Carnegie Hall to find out how to go about playing there. Carnegie required him to submit demo CDs along with a concert repertoire and biography for review by a selection committee.
To prepare for the Carnegie concert, Smith has practiced an average of five to seven hours a day in addition to playing nightly at Sea Island. Smith says his optimum practice time is late at night when his wife, Lesa, and children, Christopher and Emily, are asleep.

When my wife and children go to sleep, apparently, they just pass out,” Smith jokes. “They’ve grown accustomed to my playing through the years.”

Raised in Oxford, Alabama, Smith first tickled the ivories when he was four years old and joined his mother, Gladys, at the piano. He went on to study under several accomplished teachers including Dr. Patricia Parker, professor emerita of Jacksonville State University and Dr. Viatold Terkevitch.

“My mother is an avid pianist, and she showed me everything about music that she knew,” Smith recalled. “What I got from my mother is my intense love of the piano. It’s such an emotional instrument. You can put every aspect of emotion into a piano performance – sadness, happiness and passion.”

Smith’s Carnegie concert has sold out. All of the subscription tickets available to season ticket holders sold shortly after Carnegie announced Smith’s concert. Smith attributes the interest the Carnegie season ticket holders have shown in his concert to the repertoire he selected.

“I’ve taken a little bit from all of the programs performed by the great pianists at Carnegie Hall and put it into this program,” Smith explained.

Smith is taking his own fan club to New York madeup of extended family from Alabama and about 70 friends and supporters from Georgia. He hopes that his Carnegie debut will launch an international concert career.

“After Carnegie I want to make a debut with a symphony, and next year I hope to make a debut in London and Paris.”

Like any musician who has struggled for gigs and critical acclaim, Smith doesn’t take his recent success for granted.

“If you had told me five years ago that I’d be playing at the White House and at Carnegie Hall I would never have believed you,” Smith said. “There was a period of time when it seemed like I would never play professionally again. I really treasure what’s going on today. You never know how to recognize a good day unless you’ve had a lot of bad days.”

February 5 should be a very good day for Christopher Smith. Visit www.christopheratthepiano.com to learn more about Christopher Smith.