David Byrd-Marrow & Cory Smythe
Thu, Feb 5, 2026, 7:30 pm
Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio at CMS
2 hours, including intermission
The timeless art of the recital is perpetuated in the hands of present-day masters of the genre.
Program
Jérôme Naulais
(b. 1951)Miroir for Horn
David Byrd-Marrow
Assumed Lineage for Horn and Piano
(World Premiere) (2026)Alec Wilder
(1907-1980)Sonata No. 3 for Horn and Piano
(1970)Jörg Widmann
(b. 1973)Air for Horn
(2005)Cory Smythe
(b. 1977)ventriloquism for Ryan for Horn, Piano, and Electronics
(World Premiere) (2025)Billy Strayhorn
(1915-1967)Suite for the Duo for Horn and Piano
(1966)Olivier Messiaen
(1908–1992)Chant (dans le style Mozart) for horn and Piano
(1986)
David Byrd-Marrow
Cory Smythe
Hailed as “stunning and assured” by the New York Times, Atlanta native David Byrd-Marrow is a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as The Knights. He enjoys an active chamber music calendar, and has performed at festivals including the Ojai Music Festival, the Spoleto Music Festival, Music@Menlo, the Tanglewood Music Center, Summerfest! at La Jolla Music Society, and the Denver Chamber Music Festival. Formerly a member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, he has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Atlanta, Seattle and Tokyo symphony orchestras, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. He has recorded on labels including Tundra, More Is More, Nonesuch, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, and Naxos. Byrd-Marrow received his bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School and master’s from Stony Brook University. He is Associate Professor of Horn at Oberlin College and Conservatory.
Pianist Cory Smythe has worked closely with pioneering artists in new, improvisatory, and classical music, including saxophonist-composer Ingrid Laubrock, violinist Hilary Hahn, and multidisciplinary composers from Anthony Braxton to Zosha Di Castri. His own music “dissolves the lines between composition and improvisation with rigor” (Chicago Reader), and his first record was praised by Jason Moran as “hands down one of the best solo recordings I’ve ever heard.” Smythe has been featured at the Newport Jazz, Wien Modern, Trondheim Chamber Music, Nordic Music Days, Approximation, Concorso Busoni, and Darmstadt festivals, as well as at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart festival, where he was invited to premiere a new work created in collaboration with Peter Evans and Craig Taborn. He has received commissions from Milwaukee’s Present Music, the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble, of which he is a longtime member, and the Shifting Foundation. Smythe received a Grammy award for his work with Ms. Hahn and plays regularly in the critically acclaimed Tyshawn Sorey Trio.
