Arriving at McGill University as a teenager in 1987 to pursue a degree in film and communications, she first worked the airwaves at CKUT-FM, the school’s radio station that launched the same year, while also writing for its music magazine covering local and national artists.
[1] She also brought the show out of the studio and into venues, events and festivals across the country, including a national 15th-anniversary tour (1999-2000) in collaboration with Exclaim!, that she hosted in several cities.
[4] She forged relationships across the French-English broadcasting and cultural divides, producing live concerts in collaboration with Radio-Canada’s new music program Le Navire Night, and Canadian artist showcases and web content with Bande à part.
[8] As a curator, producer and editor she was again showcasing Canadian performers at the cutting-edge of electronic music; new forms of audiovisual creation; commissioning works, encouraging debuts, and exporting artists around the world through the festival’s international editions.
Joining the British Council in 2019, she worked as an advisor, programmer and mentor for the AMPLIFY Digital Arts Initiative, connecting women artists from across Canada, the Americas and the United Kingdom.
[12] She developed capacity building activities, and curriculum, fostered collaborations and helped coordinate international public-facing showcasing opportunities for the more than 100 women who passed through the initiative from 2018 to 2023.
As part of the burgeoning indie rock scene in Montreal in the early 90s, Schmidt was a singer and bassist with Pest 5000 (1992-2001), a band that also featured Brave New Waves producer Kevin Komoda, Genevieve Heistek, Jon Acensio, and a long line of drummers including Howard Bilerman, Colin Burnett, Andy Vial, and Alexander McSween.