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
New Work for Horn and Piano
(World Premiere) (2024)Alec Wilder
(1907-1980)Sonata No. 3 for Horn and Piano
(1970)Jörg Widmann
(b. 1973)Air for Horn
(2005)Cory Smythe
(b. 1977)New Work for Horn and Piano
(World Premiere) (2024)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 the solo hornist of the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as a member of The Knights. Working with a uniquely wide range of performers, he has premiered works by Matthias Pintscher, Arthur Kampela, George Lewis, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Du Yun, Marcos Balter, Anna Webber, Jörg Widmann, Miguel Zenón, and Chick Corea. He has performed at festivals including the Ojai Music Festival, the Spoleto Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, Summerfest! at the La Jolla Music Society, and as faculty at the Festival Napa Valley. Formerly a member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, he has also made appearances 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, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has recorded on many labels including Tundra, More Is More, Nonesuch, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, and Naxos. Byrd-Marrow received his bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School and his master’s from Stony Brook University. He is the Assistant Professor of Horn at the Lamont School of Music, of the University of Denver.
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 jazz pianist and composer 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.