ROB SMITH

The innovative and highly energetic music of Rob Smith is frequently performed throughout the United States and abroad. He has received numerous awards, including those from the Aaron Copland House (Residency Award), ASCAP, the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra New Orchestral Repertoire Project, the Coups de Vents International Band Composition Competition (France), and the National Band Association. He has received commissions from the Texas Music Festival Orchestra, Soli Chamber Ensemble (San Antonio), the American Composers Forum (Continental Harmony), the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, and several nationally renowned university wind ensembles, among many others.

In 1997, he was the recipient of a Fulbright Grant to Australia to study with Peter Sculthorpe, which led to a teaching position at the University of Wollongong in 1998. Commercial recordings of his music are available from the Society for New Music (Syracuse, NY), Rutgers University Wind Ensemble, University of Houston Wind Ensemble, saxophonist Jeremy Justeson, Austrian toy pianist Isabel Ettenauer, and the University of Houston and Texas Christian University Percussion Ensembles. Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer, Southern Music, C-Alan Publications, and Skitter Music Publications publish his music.

Currently, Rob teaches at the University of Houston Moores School of Music, where he is Professor of Music Composition and Director of the AURA Contemporary Ensemble. Under his direction, AURA presents professional-caliber performances of chamber music from the last two decades. Thoroughly committed to creating an innovative concert experience, the ensemble frequently collaborates with artists from other disciplines, including actors, authors, choreographers, and dancers, and utilizes theatrical lighting, projections, and video in their performances.

During his tenure at UH, Rob has been formally recognized for his teaching three times, having received the 2013 Moores School of Music Outstanding Faculty Award, the 2014 UH College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Faculty Recognition Award, and the 2022 College of the Arts Teaching Prize for Innovative Uses of Media. The latter award, presented by the UH Media & the Moving Image Initiative, was for his creation of the AURA “One on One” Video Series, which features imaginative, student-designed videos of solo performances accompanied by interviews with the composers.

From 2003–2014, Rob served as one of the artistic directors of Musiqa, a Houston-based contemporary chamber ensemble. In addition to programming and presenting 6–8 concerts a season, Rob created three children’s programs with his colleagues at Musiqa, two of which continue to be presented annually for hundreds of public school students.

Education

Doctor of Musical Arts: Music Composition – The University of Texas at Austin - 1999
Master of Music: Music Composition – The University of Texas at Austin - 1992 
Bachelor of Music: Music Education – Potsdam College, Crane School of Music - 1990