Melodic Grace

Seeing the beauty in every note is part of how local musician and vocalist Spencer Smith approaches his craft with gratitude. It’s a spirit that’s kept him dedicated to making art, and it’s what’s keeping him prescribed to the mentality that art is something that should be shared, accessibly, with all.

Spencer Smith

“All art is beautiful and all art is sacred,” Smith said, in reference to the arts ministry at his place of employment, First Congregational Church, “no matter what it is.” The programming at First Congregational, where Smith serves as Director of Music, aims to exemplify that, bringing together events that are diverse in discipline, free to the public and supportive of artists.

One such recent event brought the Sioux Falls Chamber Music Collective’s Uplifting Voices of Unity series to the space, combining music, dance and poetry. “It was a beautiful tapestry. All of these things were happening all at once, so some people connected to the music, some the dance and some the spoken word. It brought so many aspects of art together.”

And this weaving together of disciplines is something that plays a role in Smith’s own arts trajectory, as a lifelong musician.

“The first avenue of music for me was piano,” he said. “My sister was a pianist and took lessons in kind of the way everybody does in grade school and middle school, and I listened to her practice when I was little. I would start plunking out her music when I was about four. My parents got me into lessons when I was six, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

The Hermosa, S.D. native credits a rich family history in the arts with that built-in passion for music. His great grandmother was a classically trained pianist and worked as a choir director and music teacher in the early part of the 20th Century until her retirement in the 1940s.

“My parents have her piano, and that’s where I learned to play—on her instrument,” he said. “I feel like that kind of has been a big connection in our family.”

But though piano was Smith’s first musical passion, it hasn’t been his only one. After a dalliance with clarinet through middle and high school, he started engaging his interest in choral music at University of South Dakota (USD).

“College was really my first experience in singing in a choir,” Smith said. “I had led things in church as a kid, playing the piano and directing a small church choir, but really singing singing didn’t happen until college.”

That connection to vocal performance connected Smith with associate professor of music Tim Campbell and the professional choral ensemble Campbell has since spearheaded in Sioux Falls, Transept.

“It started with a group of USD students in 2015, and we had our first concert that December in the Cathedral in the chapel,” said Smith, who has performed as a tenor in the tutti ensemble ever since. “It was Tim exploring the possibilities of a different sort of choir in town, and it’s grown so much since then.”

Since making his way up to Sioux Falls after college, Smith has found himself accompanying several local ensembles and eventually served as one of the section leaders at the First Congregational Church choir. He started as the interim Director of Music in 2018 before coming on permanently and adding the arts ministry to his responsibilities in 2021.

In addition to bringing in guest artists to the church space for free-of-charge events, Smith coordinates the Chancellor Choir, an adult ensemble of 20-25 singers; leads worship by playing organ; and directs the handbell choir, a method of performance that proved an especially good outlet during the pandemic.

“I could space out the choir as much as I needed to—everyone had their own bell table, six feet apart, with masks on. And since there’s no singing, it really was a pretty safe thing we could do and still have an ensemble meeting regularly during the pandemic.”

Through his work at the local church, as well as performing out in the community, one thing that keeps Smith coming back is the community that comes with the experience—that instant connection between artists that is undeniable.

“Some of my really good friends have developed out of a choral relationship,” he said. “There’s just something about the sense of community that I absolutely love. And the expression that comes from choral music is just so different from anything else. You get text that you get to explore—and it enhances the beauty of the music so much more than anything else can.”