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He is an horn player and teacher who began to learn the
horn in Hampton, Virginia, while he was in 7th grade and decided
to follow playing it as a career after he had been to a summer program, at
Indiana University. He later took
his Bachelor of Music degree studies at Indiana University before gaining a
position in Washington D.C. as a musician in the United States Air Force
Band.
After leaving the USAF Band he went back to studies at
the The Juilliard School in New York, gaining his Master of Music in 1994. He then went to England and was
awarded two diplomas from the London’s Royal Academy of Music and sat the
examinations to become an Associate of the Royal College of Music. Back in the United States in 1999
he received his doctorate from The Juilliard School for his Fleeing
Revolutions: A Bio-Bibliographic Study of Alexei Haieff.
His professional career has seen him performing in many
concerts nationally and internationally either as a soloist, orchestral
member or chamber musician. He
became the Principal Horn of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000 and
remained with them until 2003.
He went on to take the position of Principal Horn with Opera Company
of Philadelphia and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Other orchestras that he has performed with include
the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Orpheus
Chamber Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philly Pops and the
University of Delaware Symphony Orchestra.
Aside from performing with all these orchestras in their
home bases he has toured S.E. Asia with the New York Symphonic Ensemble,
toured Europe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and toured the United
States with the San Francisco Orchestra.
He has taken part in and/or played at many music
festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Palm
Bach Chamber Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival in Italy and the US, has
been the Brass Faculty Coordinator at the AIMS Festival in Austria and at
the Bowdoin International Music Festival he was one of the artists in residence.
A member of orchestras in various Broadway musical
productions he can be heard on the original cast recording of Parade. Other recordings he can be heard on
include En Concierto Inolvidable by Rocio Durcal, Gift and Amanecer
by Jon Secada, Latin Grammy Nominees 2003: Regional Mexican and El
Ultimo Adios (The Last Goodbye).
In the field of musical education he has been on the
faculty of Lynn University in Florida and the University of Louisiana – Monroe. Most recently he has been an
Associate Professor of Horn at the University of Delaware, which he joined
in 2006, and also gives private tuition from his horn studio, which hosted
the 2010 Northeast Workshops.
Sources:
1.
http://music.udel.edu/faculty/smithjd/about.html
2.
http://hornplayer.net/teachers/t5115.html
3.
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2008/mar/horn031208.html
4.
http://www.answers.com/topic/el-ultimo-adios-the-last-goodbye
5.
http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=389898
6.
http://www.juilliard.edu/alumni/news_decades/2009-2010/1003/index.html
7.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0nfrxqt0ldje~T4
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