The Norwalk Art Space presents live music on Sundays from 11am – 1pm, free of charge. Sunday, August 14th will be a jazz duo with Matthias Schmidt and Alex Smith. Having grown up in rural Germany, Matthias Schmidt didn’t experience jazz until he moved to NY at 18, just after high school. He started working as an Au-Pair for a family in Westchester. There, a course at Juilliard Evening Division under Dave Meder motivated him to pursue a career in jazz piano. A year later, after having attended a 5-week summer program at Berklee College, he was accepted on a half-tuition scholarship. He was also invited to the German jazz programs at HfMT Cologne and HMTM in Munich. After a year under Tizian Jost at HMTM Matthias returned to NY, where he is now a Junior at Purchase College. Purchase has enabled him to closely work with faculty the likes of David Hazeltine, Gary Smulyan, Ralph Lalama, David DeJesus, Kenny Washington and Pete Malinverni while actively gigging at numerous venues around the city, like Birdland and Maureen’s Jazz Cellar. As one of only 15 jazz students nationwide, Matthias was recently invited to a composition workshop at the prestigious Ravinia Steans Music Institute near Chicago, where he closely worked with Steve Wilson, Billy Childs and Rufus Reid.