CMS - The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

CMS Two Member

Praised for his “brilliant” (The New York Times) and “confident and controlled” (The Boston Globe) solo performances, oboist James Austin Smith is an active performer of and advocate for chamber and new music. He is an artist of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), The Declassified, and the Talea Ensemble and a regular guest of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared at the Music@Menlo, Marlboro Music, Chamber Music Northwest, Spoleto USA, Lucerne, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Stellenbosch, and Schleswig-Holstein festivals and has recorded for the Nonesuch, Bridge, Mode, Kairos and Naxos labels. Mr. Smith holds bachelors degrees in music and political science from Northwestern University, a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Leipzig, Germany. He is a recent alumnus of "The Academy", a collaboration of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the New York City Department of Education. His principal teachers are Stephen Taylor, Christian Wetzel, Humbert Lucarelli, Hansjörg Schellenberger, and Ray Still. The son of musician parents and eldest of four boys, he was born in New York and raised in Connecticut. Mr. Smith is a member of the faculty of the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase and a member of Chamber Music Society Two.

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