Timeless Love Songs At Festival Hill Library Concert

It’s that time of year when love is in the air and the annual Valentine’s Library Concert for Round Top Festival Institute is happening. This year it will be Timeless Love Song from Broadway to Nashville.. The concert starting at 3:00 pm on Saturday, February 8, 2025 supports the Festival Institute’s Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Library and Study Center. Tickets are $30 for adults and $10 for students. They can be purchased online at www.festivalhill.org or by calling the Festival office at 979-249-3129.

Dick Smith, who passed away in 2022, had an illustrious career in advertising. Retiring in La Grange, he became involved in the local community, often fundraising for Festival Hill where he produced the annual Valentine’s concert. His lifelong goal of creating a Broadway show culminated in the Festival Hill production of Virginia and Ed Leach’s “Heart of the Tin Trunk.”

Carrying on in his uncle Dick Smith’s footsteps and musical tradition, Will Lynde from Nashville will be performing along with a starstudded cast of family members including Ryan Smith, Dick’s brother J. Gary Smith, grandson Grayson Levee, and Will’s brother Justin. Plenty of love songs will be on the program including “Can’t Take My eyes off of You”, “Georgia on My Mind” made famous by Willie Nelson and Elton Johns’ “Your Song.”

Will’s love for music really began developing after his first Nashville songwriting session when he was 13. He was a regular in the ensemble casts of Stratford High School’s musicals until his senior year, when he played the lead role in Will Roger’s Follies. In 2012, he was invited by his uncle to his first performance at Festival Hill. At Belmont University, he began writing and playing with a wide variety of Nashville artists which led him to win Belmont’s Country Showcase competition with Baylor Wilson in 2015 and the Rock Showcase competition with Forest Fire Gospel Choir in 2016. In 2020, he released his first single as a solo artist and in 2021, he released his LP “The Texas Breeze.” Since 2021, he’s been touring around the world, playing keys for Kip Moore in places like London, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and all over the US. His latest EP, “Calm,” is a thoughtful collection of songs and compositions that sets out to articulate complex emotions with simplistic piano and vocal melodies. He intends to release more original music in 2025.

Returning this year is Dick Smith’s daughter Ryan Smith. Ryan grew up singing standards and show tunes alongside her father and began formal training at the age of 8. She performed in her first professional theatre show at the age of 11 and went on to attend the High School for the Performing and Visuals Arts in Houston. She studied musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the music industry, playing in several venues such as The Roxy, The Whiskey and The Viper Room. Ryan moved back to Texas to be closer to family and began performing in Austin with theatres such as ZACH, The Georgetown Palace, and Trinity Street Players.

“The Round Top Festival Institute gratefully acknowledges the 21 years of musical performance donated by Dick Smith and family in support of the Festival Institute Bybee Library. The funds received through these concerts have tremendously impacted the growth and maintenance of the Festival Library collections” stated Library and Museum Collections Curator Lamar Lentz.

Attendees are invited to join staff and the musicians on stage for a reception with scrumptious culinary treats from the Festival Hill Kitchen and a chance to win a signed copy of Festival Hill at Fifty, The History of Round Top Festival Institute.

The Library Concert and reception is funded in part through a generous donation from the HEB Community Investment Program. Helping communities for more than 100 years, HEB has continued their valued support for the arts by contributing to the Festival Institute’s Bybee Library Annual Valentine’s Concert and Adopt-A-Book program for over eight years.

After the concert there will also be an opportunity to participate in the ever popular Adopt-a-Book program. This gives attendees a chance to view and donate a book of your choice, ranging from $20 to $250 dollars, to be placed in The Bybee Library at Festival Hill. Tip: Give a lasting and meaningful Valentine gift to your significant other by adopting a book in her/his honor. A special bookplate will be added in the book in memory of someone, in honor of someone, to mark a special occasion or anniversary or just to support the library. It is a good chance to see the books being acquired for the Bybee Library at Festival Hill.

The Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Library, named for early Round Top preservationists and philanthropists, is a regional repository with a dedicated emphasis on music, and the arts and humanities. Round Top Festival Institute has long been active in collecting books on Texas history, Fayette County, art, architecture, and decorative arts with the intent to establish a world class research, study, and reference library. It actively collects and preserves rare books, manuscripts, photographs, archival materials, recordings, works of art and houses the personal library of Texas historian and former Texas State Librarian, Dr. Dorman Winfrey and The Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Collection. The Library is by appointment only. You can also access the Library book catalog of over 11,000 volumes online at http://festivalhill.org/library/ index.php.

You can support the Library by purchasing a ticket for the concert, with your monetary donation or the adopt-a-book program. To donate, go to festivalhill.org and specify Library.

For more information, contact Lamar Lentz, Library and Museum Collections Curator, at lamarl@festivalhill. org or call the Institute office at 979 249-3129 Ext. 20 and leave a message.