Ray Smith

From College of Fine Arts and Communications

1 Overview
2 Early Life
3 Education
4 Career
5 External Links
6 References

Overview

Ray Smith is a performer. He always has been. His love for music started at an early age. Smith is one of those relatively rare individuals who is an excellent performer and an excellent teacher at the same time.

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Early Life

When he was just three-years-old, Smith battled with polio. The disease left a lasting mark on his life – to this day, Smith walks with two leg braces and a cane. The physical effects from polio made it impossible for Smith to play sports, so he began to play music.

Smith has a gift for music and an ability to play a variety of instruments.

Start with the A, B-flat, and E-flat clarinets—“though I don’t play the E-flat much,” Smith says—bass clarinet, and contrabass. Add the four saxophones. And the four flutes and all the recorders as well as ethnic flutes, such as pennywhistles, Chinese flutes, Japanese flutes, and the South American quena. Then jump across the orchestra to the double reeds, including oboe, English horn, bassoon, and contrabassoon. Smith also learned to play some very old instruments at Indiana—such as the Renaissance-period krummhorn and shawm. And he specializes in some of the newest, including the Yamaha WX7, an electronic wind instrument connected to a synthesizer. The complete tally (though he has never bothered to count) is probably in the 30s. (Waite)

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Education

Smith graduated from BYU in 1975 with a degree in Music Education. He then earned two advanced degrees in Woodwinds Performance from Indiana University – an MM in 1976 and a DM in 1982.

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Career

Smith came to BYU in 1982, following an invitation from James A. Mason and encouragement from K. Newell Dayley. Smith had dreamt of teaching at his alma mater.

He currently serves as the Director of Jazz Studies and Professor of Saxophone. His jazz big band, Synthesis, has received national and international recognition by winning many jazz festival competitions such as the Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival, the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and those sponsored by the International Association of Jazz Educators; performing in some of the great international jazz festivals such as The Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland, and the Antibes Jazz Festival in the French Riviera, The Riga Jazz Festival in Latvia, The Pori Jazz Festival in Finland, The Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway, and The Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy; and has toured Japan and China, not to mention blazing new trails into Siberia in 1998.

As a performer, Smith is equally at home in either classical or jazz-related styles and is adept at all five of the woodwind instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone. He also performs and records frequently on the Yamaha WX7 Midi Electronic Wind Instrument and the AKAI E.W.I. and often plays recorders, pennywhistles, and other ethnic flutes in the recording studio. He has over 130 CD credits and has recorded on many film scores and television themes and jingles such as The Sandlot, Mi Familia, The Swan Princess, Good Morning America , The Today Show , The Ricky Lake Show , Buick, Chevy, etc., and many Canadian and German television and radio themes.

Smith performs periodically with the Utah Symphony and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and is a regular with the Utah Saxophone Quartet and Q'd Up, a jazz quintet.

Smith also does clinics and performances at colleges and high schools and adjudicates at jazz festivals. In the summers, he teaches at various jazz workshops including the Birch Creek Jazz Camp in Wisconsin where he received the Woody Herman Award for musical excellence and professionalism. In 1998, Smith was the recipient of the Voice of Jazz Award for the State of Utah.

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