Larry Alan Smith (Born in Canton, Ohio on October 4, 1955)
Following his New York debut concert, Larry Alan Smith was praised by The New York Times as “a young composer of great gifts.” Since that time, he has developed an international reputation as a composer, performer, educator, and arts executive. Many of today’s outstanding soloists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras have performed and commissioned works by Larry Alan Smith. Upon hearing the world premiere of his one-act opera, Aria da Capo, well-known Chicago-based critic Claudia Cassidy reported: “This is remarkable opera theatre . . . Smith has an ear for flaring brilliance . . . All this seems to me a true talent, primarily because I want to hear Aria da Capo again.”
He began his earliest musical training in Ohio and pursued his studies in France with Nadia Boulanger and at The Juilliard School with Vincent Persichetti. While earning his BM, MM, and DMA degrees at Juilliard, he was the recipient of several prizes, including the Joseph Machlis Prize for outstanding distinction in composition. During his final year of study, Dr. Smith was appointed to the faculty of The Juilliard School, where he taught from 1980-86. Previously, he was on the composition faculty of the Boston Conservatory.
An award-winning and prolific composer, Larry Alan Smith is represented and published by the Theodore Presser Company. This relationship also includes exclusive worldwide distribution and representation of the Tallow Tree Music Publishing catalog. Tallow Tree is a publishing company that Dr. Smith formed in 2005. Bourne Music, E.B. Marks, and Colla Voce Music also publish several of his works. He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and he serves on several regional, national, and international boards. He is currently the President of both the Vincent Persichetti Society and the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.
In addition to his primary life as a composer, Dr. Smith also maintains an active performing schedule. He has guest conducted numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles in England, Brazil, Italy, Poland, Croatia, Germany, and the United States. In 2013, he formed a music cooperative known as Aternus, and he serves as its Artistic Director. Dr. Smith is an experienced pianist who frequently performs his own works, and he has lectured extensively at institutions around the world.
As an arts executive, he has served as President of the School of American Ballet, Dean of the School of Music at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and Artistic and Executive Director of Wintergreen Performing Arts (and the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival). Dr. Smith is Professor Emeritus of Music Composition at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford where he twice provided transformative leadership as Dean. He has served as the Music Director of Bowen McCauley Dance in Washington, DC, Artistic Director of the Associazione Musicale Peligna in Sulmona, Italy, and curator of The Hartt School’s prestigious Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series.
Larry Alan Smith was a Group XI Fellow of the Kellogg National Fellowship Program, a program of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation designed to expand the nation’s pool of capable leaders. He is the President of Berg Associates, Inc., and Co-President of Music Higher Education Group (USA).
Dr. Smith is a prolific poet who resides in Avon, Connecticut, with his wife, pianist Marguerita Oundjian Smith. They have four sons. Larry Alan Smith is a citizen of both the United States and Italy.
Larry Alan Smith 