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Youth
January 18 - 31, 2014
25
Composer, 9, to perform her work at music industry show BY LYNETTE CARRINGTON
Kylie Smith is just like any other 9-year-old girl. She works hard as a fourth grader at Carlson Elementary School and loves to play with her friends. But unlike most of her friends, she is a pianist who recently found success with a solo piano composition that she wrote. Yamaha Music Education System invited her and two other young musicians to perform their work at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show in Anaheim, CA. Kylie and mother will travel to California on Jan. 23 for the performance. Kylie has been Heidi Grimes’ music student for more than five years at East Valley Yamaha Music School. The girl’s talent was evident from the beginning. “She exhibited it right away because her attention was really focused and her enjoyment level of getting music and being in a music class was very high,” states Grimes, who has been teaching at Yamaha since 1980.Kylie gets the chance to experience many musical styles within her piano lessons. “In Yamaha, children are exposed to many different styles of music—folk music and a lot of classical music—because it teaches them well, as well as jazz,” Grimes says. “We do drum camps and composition camps. Early on, at age 3 1/2, she came to the drum camp and she really enjoyed that.”
Kylie has indeed incorporated some of the techniques and lessons she has learned throughout the years into her upcoming performance at NAMM. Yamaha has paid for Smith and her mother to attend the event where she will perform her unique composition. Upon arrival, Kylie will head to Yamaha headquarters for rehearsal. The next day she will go for a soundcheck, a professional photo shoot and, after the performance, Smith will attend a VIP luncheon with others from the music world. Kylie’s solo composition is entitled, “Adventures Underwater” and is comprised of three movements, including I: A Sea Otter’s Band, II: A Dolphin Dance and III: A Flying Fish Flight. In fact, this is Kylie’s third composition that she has completed while she has been with Yamaha. “She is really starting to take over a lot of things,” Grimes says. “Coming to the lesson, she’ll prepare five to 10 ideas, she’ll work through them and pick a couple of favorite ones.” This particular composition conveys underwater adventures. The budding composer came up with stories, characters and scenarios in her mind and then worked with Grimes and another Yamaha instructor, Tomoko Yonemaru, to develop her musical pieces. “This piece is a composition she wrote last year. But this piece she has already
TICKLING THE IVORIES: Chandler’s Kylie Smith will perform her three-part composition at the upcoming National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show in Anaheim, CA. Submitted photo
performed three or four times.” Kylie’s parents, Stephanie and Somsak Smith, are excited for the upcoming performance and proud of what their daughter has accomplished at such a tender age. Kylie’s talent is a combination of a natural ability and hard work.
Whitening •
“Neither mommy nor daddy play an instrument. We took her to Yamaha when they had some classes at a local library,” states Stephanie Smith. They enrolled Kylie and she loved it. She now takes a group lesson and private SEE COMPOSER PAGE 30
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