{"id":136,"date":"2022-01-10T14:43:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T21:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/?page_id=136"},"modified":"2022-03-14T13:56:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T19:56:41","slug":"melissa-smith-bio","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/melissa-smith-bio\/","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Smith Bio"},"content":{"rendered":"[mk_page_section bg_image=”https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/roland-taylor-rolandtaylor.com-2697-a.jpg” attachment=”fixed” bg_position=”center center” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” bg_stretch=”true” video_mask=”true” video_color_mask=”#777639″ video_opacity=”0.1″ top_shadow=”true” adaptive_height=”true” max_height=”800″ full_height=”true” padding_top=”0″ padding_bottom=”0″ animation=”fade-in” sidebar=”sidebar-1″][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section][mk_page_section bg_color=”#ffffff” enable_3d=”true” speed_factor=”1″ video_opacity=”0″ min_height=”200″ js_vertical_centered=”true” sidebar=”sidebar-1″][vc_column][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”false” css=”.vc_custom_1641853656414{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Melissa is happiest playing her piano<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][mk_padding_divider size=”100″][vc_single_image image=”642″ img_size=”medium”][mk_fancy_title color=”#7c0000″ size=”100″ force_font_size=”true” size_smallscreen=”60″ size_tablet=”50″ size_phone=”40″ line_height=”90″ font_weight=”300″ letter_spacing=”2″ margin_bottom=”0″ font_family=”none”]Melissa Smith[\/mk_fancy_title][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][mk_padding_divider size=”100″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”false” css=”.vc_custom_1642539932613{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]\n

Melissa Smith<\/em> is a pianist who performs solo recitals, collaborates with other musicians, and teaches piano in Great Falls, Montana.<\/span><\/h3>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section][mk_page_section section_layout=”right” padding_top=”0″ sidebar=”sidebar-1″][vc_column][mk_padding_divider][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”false” css=”.vc_custom_1641853590186{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Melissa Smith performs solo recitals and collaborates with pianists, singers, instrumentals, theater groups and opera companies throughout the Bay Area. Her current performance project is:\u00a0\u00a0PianoDance!\u2122 featuring dance music from the Old World (Europe) and the New World (the Americas) and will include collaborations with Baroque, Flamenco and Ballroom dancers. For the past two years, she performed solo and ensemble pieces for Mark Alburger\u2019s Opus Project, a musical survey course with performances in Berkeley, Pleasant Hill and San Francisco. She was one of the pianists for the marathon performance of Erik Satie\u2019s \u201cVexations\u201d \u2013 also at the Berkeley Art Center. Smith also appears frequently on the Palo Alto Fortnightly Club recitals \u00a0– most recently on January 11, 2015 with Geoffrey Cooper at the Lucie Stern Center in\u00a0 Palo Alto. She also was the pianist for the Palo Alto Children\u2019s Theatre\u2019s production of Once Upon A Mattress<\/em>, performed at Napa Porchfest with her 8 hand piano group, 8 Hands A Foot<\/em>, performed new works by Monica Lynn at the Hidden Valley Performing Arts Center in Carmel Valley and performed on the Napa Valley Music Association\u2019s Tribute to JS Bach.<\/p>\n

Smith has collaborated with pianists Patti Deuter, Elizabeth Lee, David Manley and Anne Oliver for BAC Hand Slam!\u00a0 A program of chance encounters<\/em>. This project featured works by Bay Area Composers \u00a0(BAC) performed by five pianists incorporating elements of John Cage’s “chance operations”. Smith also composed a work for the project. Jean Bartlett, writing for the Pacifica Tribune, stated that the collaboration was “\u2026a meeting of 10 hands\u2026abstract and uncommon\u2026with a notion of wonder<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

In addition to playing the works of living composers, Smith champions music by French composers. She conceived and organized a celebration of Francis Poulenc\u2019s music, C\u2019est Poulenc!<\/em>, in honor of Poulenc\u2019s 100th birthday. More than a dozen performances featuring pianists, vocalists and instrumentalists were given in the 1999\/2000 season throughout the Bay Area. \u00a0In 1997, Smith performed Francis Poulenc\u2019s L\u2019Histoire de Babar for piano and narrator with actor Steven Patterson, as part of the San Francisco Fringe Festival.\u00a0 Robert Hurwitt of the San Francisco Examiner described their performance as \u201c\u2026pure, unadulterated delight\u2026simply blissful.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith premiered the chamber operas Antigone<\/em> and The Little Prince<\/em> by Bay Area Composer Mark Alburger for San Francisco\u2019s Goat Hall Productions. In addition, Smith was the pianist in five chamber operas for Goat Hall\u2019s Fresh Voices Festival II<\/em>, a festival of new works and chamber operas. She has also been choir pianist for many choirs throughout her career, most recently in San Mateo at First Presbyterian Church and St. Gregory\u2019s Parish. She has also been the worship leader for San Francisco\u2019s Calvary Presbyterian\u2019s Vespers Service.<\/p>\n

Smith is the owner and manager of Renditions Music Services, founded in 1995 with David Saslav to provide artist services in the Bay Area.\u00a0 Renditions Music Services released the CDs, The Story of Babar, with David Saslav as narrator, and a CD of solo piano music, Christmas on the Keys.\u00a0 Renditions has also released a CD of Palo Alto composer Nancy Bloomer Deussen’s The World Is a Butterfly’s Wing<\/em>\u00a0with text by poet Allen Cohen. Other Renditions offerings include piano study, voice instruction, the Renditions research library, the Brahms Ensemble,\u00a0Choirs@Work\u2122, Ora*Cappella\u2122,\u00a0PianoSmith\/MadLabs\u2122, and a blog –\u00a0Diary of a Pianist\u00a0and\u00a0artOpia\u2122\u00a0making creativity part of every day life.<\/p>\n

Smith has studied piano with Eliane Lust, Dennis Alexander and Steven Hesla and Baroque keyboards with Tamara Loring. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with emphasis in Music from the\u00a0University of Montana. She teaches piano privately and is a member of the\u00a0Music Teacher\u2019s Association of California \u2013 San Francisco Branch.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[mk_page_section bg_image=”https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/roland-taylor-rolandtaylor.com-2697-a.jpg” attachment=”fixed” bg_position=”center center” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” bg_stretch=”true” video_mask=”true” video_color_mask=”#777639″ video_opacity=”0.1″ top_shadow=”true” adaptive_height=”true” max_height=”800″ full_height=”true” padding_top=”0″ padding_bottom=”0″ animation=”fade-in” sidebar=”sidebar-1″][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/mk_page_section][mk_page_section bg_color=”#ffffff” enable_3d=”true” speed_factor=”1″ video_opacity=”0″ min_height=”200″ js_vertical_centered=”true” sidebar=”sidebar-1″][vc_column][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”false” css=”.vc_custom_1641853656414{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Melissa is happiest playing her piano[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][mk_padding_divider size=”100″][vc_single_image image=”642″ img_size=”medium”][mk_fancy_title color=”#7c0000″ size=”100″ force_font_size=”true” size_smallscreen=”60″ size_tablet=”50″ size_phone=”40″ line_height=”90″ font_weight=”300″ letter_spacing=”2″ margin_bottom=”0″ font_family=”none”]Melissa Smith[\/mk_fancy_title][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][mk_padding_divider size=”100″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”false” css=”.vc_custom_1642539932613{margin-bottom: 0px […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-136","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":662,"href":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/136\/revisions\/662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renditionsmusic.com\/newest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}