Composer and Pianist Michael Joseph Smith was born in Tiline, Kentucky; U.S.A. At the age of 6 years, he gave his first concert of original solo piano music in Nashville, Tennessee; obviously a foreshadowing of the inevitable musical path to follow.
Smith served in the U.S. Navy and while doing so gave lectures and performances in American Midwest, all the while continuing his study of piano technique and performance. For the next 10 years or so, in a changing musical landscape, Smith embarked upon studies in Electro-acoustic music and moved to variously, Boston and New York, while studying medicine and simultaneously becoming involved with the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the Julliard School in New York. During this period, he developed the philosophy and non-traditional notation forms of his original music later titled, "Geomusic". Concurrently, he composed works utilizing this method of performance-based musical notation for various chamber groups, solo piano, and symphony orchestras.
At this time Smith embarked upon his first European concert tour in 1970 and completed his first recordings in Italy, subsequently developing an interest in Jazz and Improvisation; and improvised music in general. Smith moved to Paris in 1972 and completed concert tours and recordings in Western Europe, Scandinavia and America, utilizing various Jazz ensembles and contemporary ensembles of his own design.
From 1975 to 1976 Mr. Smith, once again, recorded various albums in Europe and the America's and toured, mostly solo, in Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Western Europe, South America and Scandinavia. He also completed his first recordings with computer and piano, in conjunction with Swedish electronic composers Tamas Ungvary and Sten Hanson.
In 1977, Michael J. Smith was admitted to the Swedish Composers Society and in 1979 he became a member of the International Society of Contemporary Music. He returned to the United States briefly in 1980 as Composer-In-Residence in Georgia. While there he completed 3 major ballet projects with a diversity of contemporary dance ensembles, culminating in the world premiers of the works in Atlanta at the famous Fox Theater, as the "Stars Of American Dance".
Smith has been awarded numerous commissions, cultural prizes and stipendiums in Europe and Scandinavia. He has composed scores for various major film and television projects; composed music for 10 major ballet works - mostly in Europe with Choreographer Conny Borg and companies such as the Royal Swedish Ballet; and has released 55 recordings of his own compositions in 27 countries, featuring such eminent artists as: Jonas Hellborg, Steve Lacy, Noah Howard, Michael Shrieve, Danny Gottlieb, Ragnar Grippe, Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, Paul Bley, Andrew Hill, Ran Blake - and most recently, a long-awaited and much overdue new Michael J. Smith recording of duets, trios and quartets with drummer/producer, Brian Lee Sebastian, and featuring, among others, accordion virtuoso, Joel Guzman, in a decidedly non-traditional usage of his instrument. The resulting CD/electronic distribution decidedly breaks new musical ground, and is to ostensibly represent the 1st musical release from Smith's newly-reorganized company, World Music U.S.A., Inc.
A film portrait of his life entitled "In Spiritual Exile", was premiered in Sweden in 1983 and at a later date in the United States, via National Public Television Network (NPR, PBS). In addition, two films were recently released about Mr. Smith, entitled "Virtuosi: Studies 1 and 2".
In 1986 Mr. Smith entered a research program with the IBM Corporation and the Roland Synthesizer Corporation, to compose and develop "real-time" composition via computer composition software. In a span of five years, utilizing this technology, Smith created several hundred new works scored for various ensembles, and expanded the technology to transfer via digital networks, from country to country in real time, live, worldwide performances with a host of musical artists.
In December 1988, he performed in Atlanta with prominent American artist and poet, Paul Chelko and began a second Artist-In-Residency program in Atlanta that lasted until l990. Since that time, Mr. Smith has composed for the Tbilisi Chamber Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, various European ensembles and international ballet companies. Such compositions have led to the premiers and performances of pieces in Tbilisi, Moscow, Brussels, Kassel (at Documenta IX), Beijing, Xian, Atlanta, Bordeaux (at SIGMA), and Sweden.
In 1994 Smith finished 2 film projects in Sweden as well as hosted a performance series in Southern Sweden entitled "The Piano"; and worked on new recordings in both Amsterdam and Beijing.
Michael Joseph Smith has lectured and performed at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Bowdoin College in Maine, The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, the Central Conservatory Of Music in Beijing and Xian China; and has completed three tours of China, both alone and with Chinese pop singer Wei Wei. Recently he has finished commissions for Musik I Skane in Sweden for Orchestra and Alto Saxophone and premiered and performed new compositions at the 100th Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Michael Joseph Smith is founder and President/CEO of multi-media (music, film and publications) company, World Music U.S.A., Inc., and currently resides at: PO Box 65; Tyringe, Sweden, S-28221.
REFERENCES: International Who's Who in Music; The International Book of Honor; 5000 Personalities of the World; STIM, Stockholm, Sweden; Marquis Who's Who in the World; Marquis Who's Who in Music... and others such as
Who's Who in Western Europe Men Of Distinction, Swedish Composers Society, Marquis Who's Who in the South and Marquis Who's Who in America.
