Inspiring and empowering youth through the arts is the central focus of Meredith Lavitt’s career. Like many people in Park City, Meredith started as a ski bum working in the service industry. “I stumbled into my first career job, which was working for the Sundance Institute,” she recalls. “My background from Sundance involved developing emerging filmmaker programs. I created Sundance Ignite, which is for filmmakers aged 18 to 25. I have worked with filmmakers in the classroom, community and high school screening events. I have extensive experience working with a younger demographic in the arts.”

Her first taste of the Park City Song Summit was in 2023 when she witnessed a conversation between East High School students and two legendary hip-hop artists: Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Chuck D. She remembers realizing that “They [Song Summit] need a program like Sundance Ignite. There is a real opportunity to reach young artists and young minds with great role models and mentorship and to empower them to feel validated and heard as artists in their own right.”

Meredith became the executive director of the Song Summit Foundation in June 2024. The foundation supports the Park City Song Summit by supporting its wellness initiatives and by creating access and programming for young musicians. Her passion for encouraging and enabling creatives is an ethos that fits perfectly with the organization’s mission to cultivate an atmosphere of wellness and healing through music while providing musical artists and participants with meaningful and educational interactions.

One of the first programs Meredith facilitated is Summit Rising, which empowers young artists and musicians through mentorship, performance opportunities and wellness resources.

“Summit Rising was born out of the past two years of youth experiences, how they were walking through the festival, experiencing it and performing during it,” she shares.

Meredith remembers the time Eric Krasno & Friends invited the Cuban youth band Primera Linea to perform on the Canyons stage at the third annual Park City Song Summit. “The opportunity to play in front of 5,000 people is life- changing. It’s that empowerment piece. They are getting validated.”

The 2025 Park City Song Summit marks the official launch of the foundation’s Summit Rising program. Approximately 50 emerging artists aged 14 to 22 from around the world will attend.

“There’s the performance aspect, where all the youth will have an opportunity to perform on our foundation stage,” she shares, adding that there will be a dedicated youth space and authentic and vulnerable conversations led by established artists. “There’s also the mentorship piece, and it’s essential that the musicians who are coming and performing at Park City Song Summit have the opportunity to connect with the Summit Rising youth, provide feedback, answer their questions and build relationships. We are excited to foster discussions ranging from how to navigate the industry to protecting your mental health and wellness. We want to nurture a creative community that feels safe, educates and inspires.”

Additionally, the Song Summit Foundation helps musicians and participants in their journey to well-being by supporting wellness activities like yoga, meditation, sound baths, gourmet mocktails, recovery meetings and discussions around mental health and recovery.

Meredith is passionate about the foundation’s approach to engaging with musical artists and the community. “I have worked in nonprofits and mission-based arts organizations my entire career. Moving over to the Song Summit Foundation and doing work that includes wellness — I haven’t done that before. For me, the personal impact is how fragile the mental health state of our entire community is and the stigma that is so entrenched in our society over depression, anxiety and mental health. That’s something we need to overcome. The work we’re doing to normalize sobriety and mental health is incredibly vital.

“It fills my cup,” she says. “We can start doing it with younger artists, so they have a fighting chance … We aspire to create boundless horizons for these young musicians and give them the opportunity to reach their dreams both on and off the stage.”