Gregg Smith

This noted conductor and gifted composer contributed greatly towards the development of contemporary music through the forming of his chamber choir and other musical activities. Smith enrolled on the School of California at LA, where he examined structure with Leonard Stein, Lukas Foss, and Ray Moreman and performing with Fritz Zweig. In 1956, Smith gained his master’s level. Subsequently, he trained at Ithaca University, the State School of NY (S.U.N.Con.), Stony Brook, the Peabody Conservatory, Barnard University, with the Manhattan College of Music. In 1955, he founded the professional chamber choir referred to as the Gregg Smith Performers, at first located in Los Angeles and moving to NY in 1970. This incredibly skilled ensemble continues to be in charge of many premieres of modern works, aswell as revivals of early American music. Their repertoire offers included the premieres of Igor Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles and William Duckworth’s Southern Tranquility; the entire choral functions of Arnold Schoenberg and Elliott Carter; revivals of functions by Charles Ives and William Billings; aswell as parts by Edwin London, Blas Galindo, Jorge Córdoba, Harold Blumenfeld, Irving Great, Morton Gould, William Schuman, Ned Rorem, and various other moderns; and classics by Giovanni Gabrieli and Heinrich Schütz. Their documenting entitled America Sings tracked American choral music from 1620 for this. There have been also many (today out of printing) recordings produced over the group’s very own label, GSS. Smith also proved helpful as an editor for G. Schirmer web publishers to place out some modern American choral functions beneath the Gregg Smith Choral Series. Smith’s structure interests primarily centered on the creation of vocal music. His result included two operas; about 30 choral functions, like the Continental Harmonist, Ballet on William Billings for Chorus and Little Orchestra; the exquisite Magnificat; a lot more than 50 music, a huge selection of choral agreements; and in addition instrumental functions for chamber ensembles. His musical vocabulary was chiefly focused toward tonal appearance, but he utilized serialist procedures, talk, and expanded vocal ways to achieve certain results.