Performance Experience
John David Smith is active as soloist, chamber player and orchestral musician in Philadelphia, New York and throughout the United States. He is Principal Horn with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Opera Company of Philadelphia, and frequently performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Philly Pops.
Recent engagements have included concerts at Carnegie Hall and concert tours of Europe, Asia and the United States with Orpheus and of Japan with the New York City Opera. He has appeared as soloist at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and as a chamber performer throughout the United States. In addition, he has performed in numerous Broadway musicals, and can be heard on the original cast album of Parade.
From 2000-2003, he served as Principal Horn of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, and was a faculty member at Lynn University in Boca Raton and the University of Louisiana-Monroe prior to accepting his current position at UD. Dr. Smith's summer activities have included the Marlboro Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Spoleto Festival USA and in Italy. He has served as Brass Faculty Coordinator at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) festival in Graz, Austria. In 2004, he was an Artist in Residence at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and has performed on several occasions with the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival.
Education
Dr. Smith received the Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University where his teachers included Philip Farkas, Robert Elworthy, Michael Hatfield and Meir Rimon. Immediately following his studies at Indiana, he won a position with the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C., with which he served for four years.
In 1991, Dr. Smith moved to New York to resume his studies. As a student of Julie Landsman at The Juilliard School he completed a Master of Music degree in 1994, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1999. Between the two degree programs at Juilliard, Dr. Smith spent a year in London at the Royal Academy of Music, in a course that resulted in two diplomas, the Certificate of Advanced Studies, with Merit, and the Brass Teacher Licentiate (LRAM). While in London, he also completed examinations to become an Associate of the Royal College of Music (ARCM).
His interest in historical research and writing found expression in his doctoral document, entitled Fleeing Revolutions: A Bio-Bibliographic Study of Alexei Haieff, which profiles the Russian-American composer's journey from Bolshevik Russia to New York and finally to Rome. Dr. Smith made several trips to Rome to work with Haieff's colleagues at the American Academy, in order to gain further insights into the composer's life and work. His professional affiliations include the College Music Society, American Musicological Society and the International Horn Society.
