Steven Smith
conductor
Steven Smith served as Music Director of Virginia’s Richmond Symphony from 2010, launching his tenure with a gala concert featuring violinist Gil Shaham, to 2019, with a finale of Carmen in concert starring Denyce Graves. During that time, the Richmond Symphony performed a significantly wider repertoire representative of our global community, embracing music by living composers, with particular focus on cultural and gender diversity and commissioning new works. During his tenure, the RSO weathered and recovered from the recession, had its budget climb more than 30 percent, posted steadily increasing ticket sales (with the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons setting records of more than $1 million in sales), and accomplished the first expansion of the core orchestra in more than 20 years. In addition, Smith has conceived and presented new concert series such as “Casual Fridays,” hourlong explorations (combining discussion with complete performances) of core repertoire with the full orchestra, and “Rush Hour,” a chamber orchestra series held in the barrel room at the popular Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. An active speaker, he delivered the keynote address for the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association and has appeared twice on the acclaimed speaker series “Eyes on Richmond.”
August 2019 brought the release of the Richmond Symphony’s first commercial recording, on the highly respected Reference Recordings label. The recording pairs the world premiere of Mason Bates’s Children of Adam (commissioned by the Richmond Symphony for its 60th anniversary) and Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem. Both works utilize poetry of Walt Whitman (among others) and also feature the Richmond Symphony Chorus.
In 2013, Steven Smith completed a 14-year tenure as Music Director of The Santa Fe Symphony & Chorus, a period during which the orchestra achieved numerous goals: recognized artistic growth, financial stability, and enthusiastic community support. He also serves as Music Director of the GRAMMY Award-winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony, an ensemble devoted to the performance of contemporary music. Each spring, CCS presents the annual NEOSonicFest, a festival of new music and dance performances of which he serves as Artistic Director. From 2016–19, he also served as an Affiliate Faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University.
From 1997 to 2003, Steven Smith served as the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, conducting subscription concerts, summer concerts at the Blossom Music Festival, and holiday programs. Particularly interested in the role of orchestras in arts education, he assisted in the planning and conducting of the Cleveland Orchestra’s educational and family concerts and hosted the orchestra’s annual broadcast videoconference, which won an Emmy Award in 2001. For five seasons, he also served as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. During his tenure, they were invited by Carnegie Hall to perform in that institution’s famed Isaac Stern Auditorium, an appearance that took place in March 2000. During 2002 to 2005, he also served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, leading both orchestral and operatic performances.
Steven Smith is also an active ASCAP award-winning composer. He was named 2008 Ohio Composer of the Year and with that honor received a commission for a new string quartet that premiered in November 2008. His newest orchestral works are Chromo-Synchrony, premiered by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony in March 2015, and Kataklysmos, premiered by The Santa Fe Symphony in May 2010. The Cleveland Orchestra has performed his La Chasse at the Blossom Festival under the direction of Jahja Ling, and his One to One A Round for educational concerts at Severance Hall. His work Tane Mahuta was commissioned to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and was premiered in April 2006. He has received commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Eugene Youth Symphony, as well as solo artists, and has had performances of his works by the Chautauqua Symphony, Colorado Springs Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Eugene Youth Symphony, and Colorado Springs Youth Symphony.
A native of Toledo, Ohio, Steven Smith earned Master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Mr. Smith is the recipient of the CIM Alumni Association 1999 Alumni Achievement Award.
