Dane Michael Smith
Musical Training
Dane started to hear his musical calling in his early teenage years, teaching himself to play the guitar and piano. He started his formal music training at, what is now, St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, Florida.
He went on to receive his Bachelors Degree in Music Composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass. Later he attended the University of Tampa and the University of South Florida in which he received his Masters's Degree in Music Composition.
Early Performance
Dane starting performing professionally at the age of 13, primarily as a guitarist-singer-songwriter. Early, he started and was part of, several successful bands which lasted through his high school years. In his early twenty's he had a solo act for a short while, but joined a group that had a recording contract and traveled to New York City. After graduating from Berklee, Dane returned to Florida and formed the Dane Michael Group in 1980, which still performs today.
Recording and Producing
Besides recording in his home as a young man, Dane has recorded and produced his music at several big name studios including, CBS and Sony studios in New York City, with Les Paul JR. as the recording engineer. He has also recorded at the Berklee Studios in Boston, Mass., doing radio commercials and original big band arrangements with teacher and mentor Herb Pomeroy. In Tampa, Florida, he has recorded and produced several projects at Morris Sound Studios and Progressive Studios. Dane also composed, arranged and produced the original music score for the film "TWO DAYS TILL TOMORROW", in which the post production work was done at CENTURY III at Universal Studios in Orlando Fl. Dane also in 2015 did the original music for the documentary “Tales of Treasure Island”. He is working on several personal projects in his home recording studio.
Composing and Arranging
Dane started writing music at an early age. He had several compositions copyrighted in his late teens. When he began his formal music training at Berklee College of Music he was writing traditional and jazz compositions. He wrote numerous counterpoint inventions, fugues and a passacaglia. At Berklee he later wrote a Piano Sonata, and a suite for full orchestra, “Suite in Memory of Forgotten Lives”. At the University of South Florida he wrote, as his master thesis, his “String Quartet #1” which took him two years to complete. On the Jazz-Pop side of music at Berklee, Dane was writing radio commercials and big band charts and composing original jazz compositions. Dane had the pleasure to study under many well known teachers including Herb Pomeroy, Gary Burton, Ted Pease, and Michael Rendish just to name a few.
Dane has won several song writing awards as a semi-finalist in the national Billboard Song Writing Contest, in 1988 for the song “I Need You” and 1990 for “The Waiting Game”.
Dane has been the musical director of many special events including for 17 years, the Upper Pinellas County debutante ball in Florida.
To date as a writer and publisher member of ASCAP, Dane has many copyrights and continues to write and perform his music as a solo artist and with his group the Dane Michael Group.
Performance as a Soloist
Since 2006, Dane has concentrated his performing efforts as a solo artist. As a jazz-pop pianist/vocalist he has entertained in the Central/South Florida area, in Western North Carolina and California. For the past 8 summers, he has played at the Quarry Restaurant in Brevard, N.C., The Library Club, The Pub and The Cork and Barrel in Saphire Valley N.C. Dane has also played many private functions in the Asheville area along with jazz duos and trios from the Brevard Music Center. In the winters Dane has performed at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota, River Strand Golf Club in Bradenton and Jackie’s Bistro St Petersburg Beach Florida just to name a few. Dane also performs at various functions throughout Florida. In the summer of 2013 Dane performed in Carmel California. Dane continues to play shows in Florida, North Carolina and California.
