NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

2/26/2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - Dr. Rob Smith, associate professor of theory and composition at the University of Houston, will be composer-in-residence at Northwestern State University March 1-5.

While at NSU, Smith will present lectures to students in conducting, wind literature, music history and theory classes. He will also deliver a presentation on Friday March 2. Smith will also give talks to several of the composition/arranging, theory, conducting and music education classes during his stay. He will also give private lessons to music composition students.

Northwestern music faculty and students will present a recital featuring many of Smith's works on Monday, March 5 at 7 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall.

The first part of the concert will feature several of Smith's chamber works, including: Fanfare for Leonard, String Quartet No. 1, Morse Code Pop, and Sprint. The second half of the concert will be performed by the NSU Wind Symphony, conducted by Bill Brent. The Wind Symphony will play Smith's composition Push, as well as several other pieces.

Smith's music is frequently performed throughout the United States and abroad. Ensembles and musicians that have performed his compositions include the Continuum Ensemble (London), Coruscations (Sydney), Synchronia (St. Louis), the Montague-Mead Piano Plus (London), the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and the pianist Christopher Taylor. He has received commissions from the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, the American Composers Forum and several nationally renowned university wind ensembles.

His compositions have received numerous awards, including those from ASCAP, the National Band Association, the National Association of Composers in the USA, the Luigi Russolo International Electronic Music Competition, and the Society of Composers. Dance Mix, a work written for the Society for New Music (Syracuse, NY) as a part of the American Composers Forum's Continental Harmony project, was used as the title music for the PBS television documentary Continental Harmony, which aired nationally in 2001 and 2002, and will be released on an upcoming Society of New Music CD.

In 1997, as the recipient of a Fulbright Grant to Australia, he collaborated with many different Australian ensembles and musicians, which led to a teaching position at the University of Wollongong in 1998. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Potsdam College and both the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees in music composition from The University of Texas at Austin.

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