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Honoring Courtney Isaiah Smith Despite the strange reality of shows-during-COVID, it somehow is still a shock when members of the local music community are affected by or lost due to the pandemic. That unfortunately now includes the recent loss of one of Utah s most prolific musicians, Courtney Isaiah Smith, who died after a battle with COVID on Monday, Jan. 25. A Salt Lake City native, Smith was born in 1983, and grew up in our community with an affinity for the piano that started at the age of three he was playing church songs by the age of five. His talent was fostered by Christy Anderson at the Calvary Baptist Church, where he furthered his learning on a Hammond Organ, and where he would later, at the age of eight, go on to be a tenured musician. He continued that role throughout his life, all while becoming a brilliant composer in his own right. After studying composition at the University of Utah, Smith would go on to teach jazz piano at most of Northern Utah s major col ....