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Views from the Choir Loft

Biography • Keven Smith

Keven Smith · April 16, 2020

EVEN SMITH is the music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr Catholic Church, an apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) in Sacramento, California. He trains and directs a mixed choir that sings full Gregorian propers, ordinaries, and sacred polyphony at more than 100 traditional Latin Masses per year. An enthusiastic teacher, Keven offers several levels of music classes at St. Stephen’s for children ages 4 and up as well as adults. His eclectic teaching methodology—which is perpetually under development—incorporates elements of Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory, John Feierabend’s Conversational Solfege, and Dalcroze solfege, as well as the philosophies and techniques of James Jordan.

*  KEVEN SMITH • Publicity Photo

Before accepting his current position in 2014, Keven was the founding director of a men’s schola and a girls’ choir at the Fresno (CA) Latin Mass community, which is now an apostolate of the FSSP. He has also maintained a freelance writing business since 2003. Keven earned a Bachelor of Music degree (in clarinet performance) from the Curtis Institute of Music and a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California. He has studied voice with Pamela Hicks and organ with Dan Nguyen. Keven lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.

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Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Biographies Last Updated: August 26, 2020

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About Keven Smith

Keven Smith, music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr, lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Except the psalms or canonical Scriptures of the new and old Testaments, nothing composed poetically shall be sung in church, as the holy canons command.”

— ‘Council of Braga, 563AD’

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