Garth Smith | |
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Born | June 8, 1960 |
Origin | Brigham City, Utah, United States |
Genres |
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Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) | Piano |
Years active | 1990–present |
Website | www |
YouTube information | |
Channel | |
Years active | 2015–present |
Subscribers | 1.23 thousand [1] |
Total views | 772 thousand [1] |
Last updated: May 4, 2023 |
Garth William Smith (born June 8, 1960) is a pianist/composer/musician accomplished in several styles of music including rock, country, classical and jazz. His current endeavor is creating spiritually uplifting piano arrangements of popular LDS Hymns. After living for many years in Oceanside, California, he currently resides in Bella Vista, Arkansas, and is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). [2] [3]
Garth was born in Brigham City, Utah, the son of a senior executive chemical engineer working at Thiokol, G. Ray and JoAnne (Petty) Smith. [4] After taking a short break to serve a mission to the Navajo people of Northern Arizona, Smith completed a college degree in Design Engineering Technology from Brigham Young University, graduating in the class of 1988. Afterwards, Smith accepted a position at Intergraph Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama. Later he moved to Carlsbad, California, to accept a design position with Callaway Golf.
Smith began his classical musical training on the piano at the age of 5. As a missionary and college student he would entertain many with his piano skills, including a special performance of a Beethoven sonata to over 15,000 people in the BYU Marriott Center at his college graduation.
Smith has been a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Nashville Songwriters Association International. In 1999 he was the recipient of the California Country Music Association (CCMA) "Song of the Year" award for the song "Last Call." He has also performed as a keyboardist in jazz, rock, and country bands. [5]
While living in Alabama, Smith was introduced "Writers in the Round" at the famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee, a club famous for intimate, acoustic music performed by its composers. Soon, Smith was active participant there, performing his own original compositions.
Smith also participated as both a rehearsal and performance pianist in the local community theaters of Huntsville. He also joined in various local bands touring throughout Northern Alabama and Southern Tennessee. They also participated in local music festivals including Huntsville's annual Panoply Arts Festival.
Relocating to Southern California in 1996, Smith continued playing in country bands, as well as developing his songwriting abilities. His bands have played at many popular venues such as the Viejas Casino and the San Diego County Fair.
By 2014, Smith had turned his music to creating artistic arrangements of popular gospel hymns of the LDS Church, producing several albums, music videos and other related works. His work is available through Deseret Book.
Recently Smith has turned his attention to recording original arrangements of popular LDS hymns, releasing this first album in 2014 titled Sacred Hymns Arranged and Performed on the Piano. This has received great acclaim and wide national distribution within the LDS music genre. [6]
For his second full-length album, How Beautiful Thy Temples, Sacred Hymns, Vol. II (released in 2015), Smith brings his masterful, reverent signature style to bear on hymns and sacred songs that focus on the beauty and eternal significance of temples. [7] This has been his most successful release yet, having charted nationally at #21 on the iTunes Gospel new music chart. [8]
Crawford Gates, famous LDS composer, has called "How Beautiful Thy Temples" a "fabulous recording." Smith's arrangement of Gates's beloved Easter hymn "He is Not Here" (from "The Choirbook") is included as track 8 on the album.
From "An Angel From on High," an arrangement inspired by the statue of the angel Moroni that sits atop many temples, to the Children's Songbook classic "I Love To See the Temple". It's the perfect music to set the tone around your home on the Sabbath or to invite the Spirit more fully into your life day-to-day. [8]
On 1 September 2016, Smith released his third album of LDS hymn arrangements, a collection of fresh, new arrangements of about the Saviour, Jesus Christ, titled Behold the Great Redeemer, Sacred Hymns, Vol. III. A new addition is the release of his original sheet music so that now other experienced pianists can perform this genre music in church worship services and other religious settings. [9] Selections include Lead, Kindly Light,In Humility our Saviour, and another Crawford Gates masterpiece, Our Saviour's Love.
"The bottom line is this—Smith's music takes you to a place of serenity, an escape from the world for a moment, and provides the listener with beautiful arrangements that point to the Savior."
Released in time for the 2017 Christmas season, A Sacred Christmas, this album features a variety of his favorite hymns that commemorate the birth of the Saviour. This album features several guest artists, Calee Reed, Michael Dowdle, One Voice Children's Choir, Sun Valley Carolers and others that add an extra layer of inspiration. [10]
Smith frequently travels the country performing free, inspirational music firesides. His 60-minute presentation explores gospel principles found in eight hymns that includes the restoration, prayer, sacrament, forgiveness, and most importantly, the atonement of Jesus Christ.
The multimedia presentation features a Christ-centered narrative, live piano, video clips from prophets and apostles, and artwork from other LDS artists.
Smith's piano is a backdrop featured in many gospel music videos produced directly by or for the LDS Church, including the church's recent #LIGHTtheWORLD Christmas season service message. The most popular of these videos is the Heaven's Hallelujah arrangement featuring vocalist Lauren Sullivan. Many of these are accessible for free on their YouTube Channel.
Another first ever event occurred for Smith on 9 September 2016, with the production of his online concert on Facebook Live on the Moroni Channel. [11]
Smith is the recipient of the following awards and honors:
The Angel Moroni is an angel whom Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, reported as having visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel Moroni was the guardian of the golden plates buried near his home in western New York, which Latter Day Saints believe were the source of the Book of Mormon. An important figure in the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, Moroni is featured prominently in its architecture and art. Besides Smith, the Three Witnesses and several other witnesses also reported that they saw Moroni in visions in 1829.
TheTabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is an American choir, acting as part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for over 100 years. The Tabernacle houses an organ, consisting of 11,623 pipes, which usually accompanies the choir.
In Mormonism, the restoration refers to a return of the authentic priesthood power, spiritual gifts, ordinances, living prophets and revelation of the primitive Church of Christ after a long period of apostasy. While in some contexts the term may also refer to the early history of Mormonism, in other contexts the term is used in a way to include the time that has elapsed from the church's earliest beginnings until the present day. Especially in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "the restoration" is often used also as a term to encompass the corpus of religious messages from its general leaders down to the present.
This is a timeline of major events in Mormonism in the 20th century.
Music has had a long history in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from the days in Kirtland, Nauvoo, and the settlement of the West, to the present day. In the early days of the Church, stripped-down Latter-Day Saint folk music, which could be sung without accompaniment due to the lack of instruments in Utah, was popular. In the 19th century, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was created and began touring, while musicians began writing devotional and praise music with a Latter-Day Saint influence, paralleling the success of Christian Contemporary Music. Several organizations have existed and do exist to promote these artists, such as Deseret Book and the now-defunct Faith-centered Music Association. Starting in the late 20th century and to the present day, Latter-Day Saints have been increasingly involved in modern popular music in America and elsewhere in the World.
Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration is a 2005 film that focuses on some of the events during the life of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, which was both filmed and distributed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The film was shown in the Legacy Theater of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building from its opening on December 17, 2005 until early 2015, and opened in several LDS Church visitors' centers on December 24, 2005.
Janice Kapp Perry is an American composer, songwriter, and author. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she has written over 3,000 songs, some of which appeared in the church's official hymnal, and in the Children's Songbook. Some of her most well-known songs include "I Love to See the Temple" and "A Child's Prayer."
Community of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are two denominations that share a common heritage in the Church of Christ founded by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830. Since Smith's death in 1844, they have evolved separately in belief and practices. The LDS Church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and claims more than 17 million members worldwide; Community of Christ is headquartered in Independence, Missouri, and reports a worldwide membership of approximately 250,000.
Hymns are an important part of the history and worship of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the official hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Published in English in 1985, and later in many other languages, it is used throughout the LDS Church. This article refers to the English version. The book was published on the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first LDS hymnbook, compiled by Emma Smith in 1835. Previous hymnbooks used by the church include The Manchester Hymnal (1840), The Psalmody (1889), Songs of Zion (1908), Hymns (1927), and Hymns (1948).
Merrill Boyd Jenson is an American composer and arranger who has composed film scores for over thirty films including Emma Smith: My Story, Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, Legacy, Harry's War, and Windwalker. Many of the films Jenson composed music for were directed by Academy Award-winning director Kieth Merrill. Jenson has also composed several concert productions including a symphony that premiered at Carnegie Hall. Additionally, he has composed music for many television commercials including the acclaimed Homefront ads, music for three outdoor pageants, and several albums. Jenson lives in Provo, Utah with his wife Betsy Lee Jenson.
The Sacred Grove is a forested area of western New York near the home of Joseph Smith where the foundational event of the Latter Day Saint movement took place. It is the location where Smith said he had his First Vision, a theophany, occurring in the spring of 1820.
George Manwaring was a hymnwriter of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some of his works have become favorite LDS hymns and are found in the 1985 LDS Church hymnal.
Crawford Marion Gates was an American musician, composer, and conductor known for his contributions to the body of music for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Gérald Jean Caussé has been the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 9 October 2015. He is the fifteenth man to serve in this position. He has been a general authority of the LDS Church since 2008 and was the first person from France appointed as a general authority.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord. Temples are considered by church members to be the most sacred structures on earth.
Alex Boyé is a British-American singer, dancer, and actor. He was named the "2017 Rising Artist of the Year" in a contest sponsored by Pepsi and Hard Rock Cafe.
Robert Milton Cundick Sr. was a Latter-day Saint composer. Cundick's interest in music started at a young age, and he studied under Mormon Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner and later under Leroy J. Robertson. He also served for many years as an organist at the Salt Lake Tabernacle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This included accompanying the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and playing organ solos on the weekly broadcast, Music & the Spoken Word. Cundick served in World War II and enrolled at the University of Utah where he received his BFA, MFA, and PhD. He joined the music faculty at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1957 but his work there was interrupted due to various callings by LDS Church leaders. After his retirement, Cundick continued to contribute to music in the LDS Church. In his personal life, he married his organ student Charlotte Clark while he was a student at the University of Utah. He died in 2016 at the age of 89.