When
February 10, 2024 | 2:00 pm - 3:45 pm
What
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 American Love Songs. The concert starting at 2:00 pm on Saturday, February 10, 2024 supports the Festival Institute’s Faith P. and Charles L. Bybee Library and Study Center. Tickets can be purchased online at www.festivalhill.org or by calling the Festival office at 979-249-3129.
Carrying on in his uncle Dick Smith’s footsteps and musical tradition, Will Lynde from Nashville will be performing along with a star-studded cast of family members including Arden Lynde, Dick’s brother J. Gary Smith 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.”
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.”
Smith’s nephew Will Lynde has been playing keys and writing songs for various artists from Houston to Nashville since he was 13. His first performance at Festival Hill was in 2012. 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. He has released several solo singles in that time and has plans for many more releases in 2024.
Returning this year is Will’s talented wife Arden Lynde. Arden has been a music lover and singer for most of her life, singing and performing from elementary school through college. In 2018, she moved to Nashville to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt University. Since graduating, Arden has been a full-time clinical mental health therapist. In addition, she teaches and trains Krav Maga, a self-defense martial art. In her free time, Arden sings backup for her husband and other local artists and friends in Nashville. She is honored to return to sing at Festival Hill!
“The Round Top Festival Institute gratefully acknowledges the 20 years of musical performance donated by Dick Smith and family to support 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 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.
Also after the concert there will 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.
Tickets
$30
Where
Festival Hill Concert Hall
248 Jaster Rd. Round Top, TX 78954