Biography
Kirk Smith, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, is in his 26th year of teaching and conducting.
Smith was Director of Orchestral and Band Activities at the University at Albany. He was Co-coordinator of Instrumental Music Education and Director of Orchestral Activities at California State University, Hayward. Smith was Director of Orchestra Activities at Iowa State University from 1989 to 1998. In the fall of 1996 he served as Acting Chair of the Department of Music at Iowa State. In 1994, Smith was on the faculty for the American Symphony Orchestra League Conducting Workshop in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1996, Smith founded the ISU Symphony Orchestra Living Music Project.This project promoted American orchestral music composed since 1990.The purpose was to provide a resource for public school, community, and college orchestras who were looking for new literature.
His public school teaching experience includes elementary instrumental music in the Tuscarora School District in Pennsylvania, and instrumental music( 5-12) at Colorado Academy in Denver. While in Denver, he was a music assistant with the Colorado Children's Chorale. In Georgia, Smith was assistant conductor of the Sandy Springs Chamber Orchestra and was Director of Instrumental Activities at Georgia State University for three years. Smith served two seasons as Music Director of the Central Iowa Symphony and completed a one year appointments as Music Director of the Fort Dodge Symphony Orchestra and as Music Director of the Centennial Philharmonic in Denver. He continues his relationship with the Black Music Repertory Ensemble (Chicago). He currently holds the position of Head Orchestra Director of the award winning Langham Creek High School Orchestras in Houston. The music program has won 3 Grammy Signature awards in the past 3 years.
Mr. Smith earned a BME and a Performance Certificate in clarinet from Shenandoah University, a MA degree in Conducting from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, and was a doctoral fellow in conducting at Ball State University. He has advanced studies in conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, the Conductor’s Guild Summer Institute, the world-renowned Pierre Monteux School for Conductors, and the International Workshop for Conductors in Zlin, Czechoslovakia.
University orchestras under Smith's direction have performed by invitation at state and regional music conferences in Georgia, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Smith was a three-term member of the Board of Directors of the Conductors Guild, and was chair of the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education. He also served on the Board of Directors as government relations chair of the Iowa Music Educators Association. Smith had recently been elected to the executive board of NYASTA with NSOA as a member-at-large.
Smith's principal conducting teachers were Charles Bruck, Harold Farberman, James Setapen, Donald Black, Joseph Docksey, Leonard Atherton, and Vincent LaGuardia. He has participated in masterclasses by Daniel Lewis, Kirk Trevor, Brian Priestman, Frederik Prausnitz, Samuel Jones, Frederick Fennell, and Milton Katims. Smith made his orchestral conducting debut in 1979, at the age of 21, with a Virginia performance of Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question .
Mr. Smith has guest conducted throughout the country including recent appearances in California, Mexico, Massachusetts, Montana, Ohio, Maryland, Colorado, and Taipei (Taiwan). He has worked with the following notable soloists: violinists Robert McDuffie, Sanford Allen, and Diane Monroe; and vocalists Simon Estes, William Brown, Hilda Harris, and Donnie Ray Albert; and the percussion group NEXUS. He has collaborated with highly regarded American composers such as Alvin Singleton, Hale Smith, Olly Wilson, and William Russo having conducted state and regional premiers of their works. Recent engagements include the Des Moines Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Amarillo Symphony Chamber Orchestra, the Orquestra de Sinfonia Oaxaca (Mexico), as well as an extensive list of public school all state and all county festivals across the country. Smith has presented sessions at the Georgia Music Educators Conference, the Iowa Music Educators Association State Conference, the Bay Section (CA) CMEA Winter Conference, the NYSSMA (NY) State Summer Conference, and the Conductors Guild National Conference.
Smith is a founding member of the College Orchestra Director's Association and holds regular memberships with the Texas Music Educators Association, ASTA w/NSOA, Phi Kappa Lambda, Phi Mu Alpha SINFONIA, and Sigma Alpha Iota as a National Arts Associate.
