[10] As he progressed in his undergraduate studies, he began thinking about pursuing a graduate degree in business administration.

Schmidt initially played at benefit concerts and recorded his music for sale on cassette tape.

[7] After that he signed with Aubergine Records and released A Walk in the Woods (1993), A Day in the Sunset (1994), and Jon Schmidt Christmas (1995).

[3] By 2010 Schmidt was giving 100 concerts a year in the Wasatch Front metropolitan area of Utah, as well as in Arizona, Southern California, Idaho, and Washington state.

[13] In 2009 Anderson saw a music video that Schmidt had uploaded to YouTube, "Love Story Meets Viva la Vida" – blending the Taylor Swift country pop "Love Story" with Coldplay's Baroque pop "Viva la Vida", which Schmidt performed as a duet with cellist Steven Sharp Nelson.

[6] Anderson suggested that he produce professional videos of the musicians performing and upload them to his store's YouTube channel.

[6][13][4] Nelson brought his neighbor Al van der Beek, a songwriter and music arranger, onto the project,[4] and Tel Stewart assisted with video production.

[14] After producing a number of videos that failed to garner much interest, the group posted "Michael Meets Mozart" (2011), and Schmidt invited the nearly 30,000 people on his fan mailing list "to watch it and share it".

Her body was found the following month at the base of a cliff in the Columbia River Gorge; her death was ruled accidental.