The 2016-17 season of the St. Paul’s Music Series will end with a performance by some special friends.

Carey Smith and Friends will be featured during the April 27 concert – an evening performance beginning at 5:15 at St. Paul Episcopal Church. Nibbles and libations will be provided and the public is invited, said Joanne Entrekin, a spokesperson for the music series.

Smith will be joined by Terri Pankhurst, vocalist; Scott Kratzer, drummist; Larry Panella, saxophonist; and Will Roland, bassist. Following are brief bios on the ensemble:

Carey Smith

The 2017 version of the group finds Carey Smith on piano and as composer. Retired after 35 years as director of bands and music instructor at Meridian Community College, Smith has worked and performed with countless name performers and clinicians in the jazz idiom during his career.

In addition to as his duties at the college, Smith has been orchestra conductor for the Meridian Little Theater since 1985. A CD of his original music was released with the Meridian Symphony Orchestra in 2004. The symphony’s 2009-10 season was based around the four movements of Smith’s “Elements” symphony, with the movements being the basis for each concert; Air, Water, Fire and Earth. The work premiered in February 2011 for the symphony’s 50th anniversary, with Itzak Perlman as featured soloist. Smith’s “2nd Suite for Jazz Quartet and Orchestra” had its world premiere in Albany, Ga. In 2010, he was invited by the International Conductors Guild to have the “2nd Suite” recognized as a new composition of merit in Copenhagen, Denmark. While there, Smith was honored to be part of the conductor and composers group given an audience with Queen Margrethe II.

The Sesquicentennial Celebration of Meridian gave Smith a commission that was premiered on the first concert in September 2010: “Meridian-150.”

Smith just completed a two year project his “Third Suite for Jazz Sextet and Orchestra” in five movements with a vocalist performing three of the movements. Carey’s daily ritual after fighting 30 minutes on his Schwinn Air-Dyne is either turning old hand manuscripts into Sibelius files or writing something new.

Scott Kratzer

Originally from Demopolis, Ala., Scott Kratzer has played drums for the group since the mid-1980s.

Band director of the highly successful Southeast Lauderdale High School Band Program, Kratzer is one of the busiest jazz drummers in Southeastern Mississippi – to which Smith says, “His solid swing groove and uncanny ear makes Scott the first-call drummer for most area jazz outings.

An accomplished percussionist in both jazz and symphonic genres, Kratzer has worked with world-class players at marquee venues all over the U.S., including Carnegie Hall, where he shared the bill with the Count Basie Orchestra. In his 30-plus years of playing, Kratzer has performed with such jazz greats as Gary Foster, Steve Rudolph, Bobby Shew, Marvin Stamm, Chris Vadala, Carl Fontana, Fred Hirsch, Butch Miles, Hal Galper, Birch Johnson, J.B. Scott and Lisa Kelly, Bill Prince, Kathy Kosins and Bill Evans (saxophone). He has also studied drum set with Joe Morello, Butch Miles, Alan Dawson, Michael Derosier and Danny Gottlieb. 

Kratzer has been featured soloist with both the Albany (Ga.) Symphony and the Meridian Symphony Orchestra, playing both Suites for Jazz Group and Orchestra compositions by Smith.

Larry Panella

Larry Panella, saxophonist, teaches at the University of Southern Mississippi as director of Jazz Studies. He has performed with numerous artists and entertainers, including The Phil Collins Big Band, The Woody Herman Orchestra and Natalie Cole.

Panella’s recordings include his newly released CD Larry Panella: The Gestures Project, and Larry Panella: Under The Influence, as well as releases with the Phil Collins Big Band, The Collection Jazz Orchestra, the Ashley Alexander Big Band, John Mahoney and Chris Cortez.

Will Roland

Will Roland, a bassist and composer from Southern California, has been active in full-time performance since 1976.

Originally a guitar player, Roland has played with Louis Bellson, Ed Shaughnessy, Don Menza, Bill Evans (saxophone), Doug Davis and many others. As part of Doug Davis’s Sanctuary band, Roland found a niche in composition with several original compositions recorded by Davis’s stellar band.

Roland is a full member of the Acoustical Society of America and the National Council of Acoustical Consultants and makes his living in acoustical design and systems integration design with his firm, Roland, Woolworth & Associates, LLC.

Terri Pankhurst

A Missouri native of Missouri, Terri Pankhurst has been singing jazz for many years, as well as performing with various pop, rock and contemporary Christian bands in the St. Louis area. She has performed and worked with musicians such as the late Larry Coryell, Denis DiBlasio and Wayne Bergeron.

Now a Mississippi resident, Pankhurst is vice president, an active board member and an actor/singer with Meridian Little Theatre. She has also performed with Carey Smith and Friends, as part of the St. Paul Chamber Series, in years past.

Pankhurst currently resides in Lauderdale with her husband, and is employed as a real estate agent with Winstead Realty Inc.

The program for the St. Paul’s Music Series concert will include music selected from the band following program:

“At Last” Harry Warren/Mack Gordon

“Blue Skies” Irving Berlin

“Get Happy Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler; Arranged by Larry Panella

“Hard Times” David Fathead Newman

“Here’s That Rainy Day” Jimmy Van Heusen/Johnny Burke

“I’m Through With Love” Gus Kahn/Matt Malneck

“It Never Entered My Mind” Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart

“Just Friends” John Klenner/Sam M. Lewis

“Los Sonidos De La Playa” Will Roland

“Nexus: The Solitary Dancer” Carey Smith

“The Lonely Room” Carey Smith

“They Can’t Take That Away From Me” Ira Gershwin/George Gershwin

“You Go to My Head” Haven Gillespie/J. Fred Coots

The St. Paul’s Music Series is an outreach ministry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, offering a relaxing and entertaining musical break to attendees. Two concerts – the first and last – start at 5:15 p.m. for after-work enjoyment, complete with hors d’oeuvres and libations. Other concerts begin at 12:05 p.m.

The music series is presented by Hardy and Dottye Graham.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is located at 1116 23rd Ave.