Jon Schmidt has been playing the piano in public for some 20 years. He's been doing an annual Christmas concert for 11 years. He's working on his eighth CD of original songs and arrangements, which will be released next summer. And he's garnered fans from all around the globe.
Not bad for a man who never exactly wanted to be a musician.
He grew up in a musical family — his father was an operatic tenor who came to the United States from Germany. Young Jon took piano lessons. "I wrote my first song when I was 13 — at least, my first good song. Everything before that was junky," he says.
When it came time to go to college, he tried out for a music scholarship because his piano teacher thought he should. But when he was offered the scholarship, "I had no intention of going into music, so I thought I shouldn't 'milk the system.' I saw myself as more of an athlete. I was going to play rugby instead."
And even after he took a couple of music classes, "that wasn't me," he says. He didn't like the structure and restrictions of class; he wanted to do music for fun.
"I was always writing; I was always making music with friends. But it was just for fun." By that time he also gotten married, and "I'd heard about people who tried to make music a career and how their family suffered. I didn't want that. I was studying English, and I was going to get an MBA."
So, what happened?
Basically, he found the style of music he could make his own and still have fun with, and he found an audience.
"I remember sitting in Kingsbury Hall listening to George Winston back when he was the only person making this kind of music, and I thought to myself, 'I could do that.' So, I started doing it for fun, and thousands of people began showing up."
People wanted copies of his music, so he put together a little cassette, "and that first year I sold a thousand cassettes. I decided maybe I should try and make a real album." He also felt "an unmistakable push" toward pursuing music. "I don't want that to sound cheesy, but Michelle and I both felt we should keep going."
His first Christmas concert came shortly after his first Christmas album. "You have an album, then you have to go out and perform the pieces," he jokes. But that, too, was so well-received that it has become a tradition.
Even though music became a serious business for the Schmidt family, he works hard to keep it fun. And that's what you can expect at this year's concert.
Except that he plays with a cross between a band and an orchestra, "we want it to feel like it's a big extension of your living room. We're not really trying to be New York."
The family will be involved. "My dad developed a stand-up comedy routine when he was a POW in England. He's 80 now, but he still comes out and does that and plays the harmonica. This year, my daughter, Sarah, who is 7, will be doing a number. The twins will be doing some hip-hop moves."
There are always some new songs and arrangements of traditional Christmas music. And there will be the goofy stuff like playing the piano upside down and backward and with his toes and elbows. "That's the thing a lot of people tell us they like, that we don't take ourselves too seriously. It's just crazy fun and very family-friendly," he says.
Schmidt's approach is "somewhere in the middle of being a classical pianist who has to practice hours and hours every day and a rock musician who just goes out and plays." One critic described him as a combination of Billy Joel, Beethoven and Linus and Lucy.
Jon credits wife Michelle for not only keeping him grounded but also adding class to the whole operation. "Without her, I'd just be a dork," he jokes.
But for Michelle, this whole music thing "has been a very fun ride. It's been interesting, an adventure, a unique experience."
It's pretty cool, she says, to get e-mails all the time telling you how great you are — "how often does that happen to people?"
But, on the other side, "there's no job security, no guarantees. You have to wake up every morning and make up your career," she says.
There have been highs and lows, says Jon. The first years, especially, were the struggle that he'd always heard about.
"But there have been many wonderful opportunities," says Michelle. "We got to go to Europe. Every once in a while I say to him, 'Can you believe you're doing what you do?"'
Sometimes, he can't. Sometimes, he supposes, it's good to know there's always English to fall back on. On the other hand, "a new performance of one of my songs by someone shows up on YouTube almost weekly." So he is really out there.
And despite it all, "I've been able to maintain my dream to always be a dad first." The Schmidts have five children. "I have not missed out of my kids' life because of touring demands."
And that's what he loves best of all.
If you go
What: Jon Schmidt Christmas concert
Where: Kingsbury Hall
When: Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $12.50-$18-50;
Phone: 581-7100
Web: www.kingtix.com
Also: Tuesday, Peery Theater, Ogden, $15-$25, 801-395-3227
E-mail: carma@desnews.com