The Schmidt family announced funeral services for Annie Schmidt, who died in a hiking accident on October 16, which will be held Monday, November 21 at 11 a.m. at the Bountiful Utah Heights Stake Chapel, with a public reception being held the night before at 6:30.
On their Facebook page, The Piano Guys shared this sweet tribute to Annie:
When Annie was 6 years old, she had her first public performance in front of 2,000 people, as a guest vocalist at her dad's concert. Any nervousness Annie felt in front of such a large crowd was quickly drowned out by the beautiful, captivating power that music had upon her soul. A breathless pause followed the end of the song, then the crowd erupted. This dynamic of successfully finding the joy, rather than the fear, in every moment played out again and again throughout Annie’s life.
Annie dreamed of writing, producing, and performing the music that seemed to flow inside her. By the time she was 21, she had produced several songs with her best friend (and brother), Spencer. She felt a driving sense of purpose to pursue music and was studying music production and technology. Recently, Annie told her roommate, “I can't wait for the day when I can share my music with thousands of people.”
We hope this dream of our sweet Annie can be fulfilled as people listen to this deeply meaningful song that she and Spencer co-wrote, co-produced and recorded lead vocals on. She recorded her last vocal tracks for it shortly before she passed from us.
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Annie truly desired to come closer to God. She also hoped to lose herself in loving others. She had a wonderful gift and ability to reach out to people, to make them realize their value. A highlight in her life was a high school humanitarian trip to Peru, where she fell in love with the people and culture. She served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Macon, Georgia, where she gained many close friends.
Annie was 100 percent authentic and real. She had a passion for people, self-discovery, learning, nature, surfing, long boarding, discovering great music, unique foods, and dancing. She would demonstrate her sweet hip hop moves anywhere anytime. Her final message to the world was:
Fill your life with good vibes.
This motto of Annie's is reflected in the following comments sent to us by her friends:
"Annie is fearless."
"She changed so many lives without even taking credit."
"She's the most random, spontaneous, funny ball of energy, and never boring to be around."
"She always had love radiating around her."
"When I moved out here my senior year, Annie would make me go to lunch with her and a friend of hers who was special needs. I used to ask her why don't we go to lunch with our friends, and she would always say, ‘Because this girl doesn't have friends. We are it.’"
We will dearly miss our absolutely fabulous, wonderful, incredible and amazing Annie!!!
About the new song Spencer and Annie were working on when she passed away, Spencer shared:
"Before my sister Annie left on her LDS mission a few years ago, we wrote a song together about her leaving. Life happened and we never got around to finishing it. Months before she passed, we fell back in love with the song and were working towards finishing it . . .
"Perhaps because the whole experience was so surreal, I never cried during the past two weeks... until I listened to this song. I sat in my basement and just wept, because the words weren't just sending her off to Georgia for a year and a half but they were now sending her off to the next life. The timing of the song for me was a powerful witness to me that god lives and that he wanted to give my family and I a gift that we could cherish for the rest of our mortal lives. It is not yet finished but I wanted to share with everyone a 30-second clip of it, in the hope that anyone (especially those who have lost a loved one) could draw strength from its message."