Performers Ari Hest and April Smith and the Great Picture Show will mix music and message at Pick-Staiger Auditorium on April 26.

The performance is part of a five-stop tour organized by Music Inspires Health, an organization that seeks to encourage healthy attitudes among adolescents and young adults through entertainment mixed with interactive education techniques.

The founder of the group, Emory fourth-year medical student Benjamin Levy, said he wanted to combine his love of music with his desire to create health programs that students could enjoy. Northwestern was the perfect venue for this program, he said.

“It seemed like a logical choice, because it’s got a great undergrad campus that’s connected to a med school, and it’s got one of the best music and theater programs in the country,” he said.

Hest is a singer-songwriter who released three albums under Columbia Records before leaving the label to work on his own project “52,” where he releases a new song every week to subscribers on his Web site.

Smith, a New York City-based singer-songwriter, released her debut album “loveletterbombs” in 2006. She is working in the studio on new material with Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne.

Read more in Friday’s DAILY.