Artist description Steven Herbert Smith has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Africa and Hong Kong, and has recorded solo recitals for the French, German and Spanish national radios, Radio 4 Hong Kong, and America's PBS. His compact discs appear on the Cambria and Innova labels. He has given many lecture recitals, master classes, and other presentations for universities and teacher associations in the U.S. and abroad, including Hong Kong's Academy of Performing Arts and Glasgow's Royal Scottish Academy. He recently received critical acclaim for his series of new-music solo recitals, Piano Entente, presented at Merkin Concert Hall in New York in 1998, and at St. John's, Smith Square in London in 2000. He has been soloist in more than a dozen concertos, with several regional orchestras as well as the Dallas and Pittsburgh Symphonies. He is a professor at Penn State's School of Music, University Park. A native Texan, Smith received the bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Baylor University, and master's and doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music, as well as an Artist's Diploma from the Mozarteum of Salzburg, Austria, where he was a Fulbright scholar. His teachers included Cécile Genhart and Kurt Neumüller.

Press Reviews New York: At Merkin Recital Hall, pianist Steven Herbert Smith presented back-to-back recitals, complete with very informative program notes, consisting entirely of solo piano music written since the 1950's.... Smith's empathic performance was superb. These composers are indeed fortunate to have such a sensitive, "entente-savvy" interpreter as Steven Smith, whose awareness of the entire spectrum of sound makes the written score come alive for the listener. (Messiaen's Le Merle bleu) Here Mr. Smith summoned unsuspected reserves of color. His supple, fluid rhythm allowed Messiaen's birds to both sing and dance. (New York Concert Review) ***London: "The recitals by the American Steven Herbert Smith at St John's, Smith Square, on 5 and 6 February under the title Piano Entente comprised recent solo piano music, mostly by British and American composers, and marked a major act of faith on this artist's part.... Steven Herbert Smith is a very fine pianist, with a finished technique and a dedicated approach to the music... chosen, which one rarely encounters in modern-day recitals. It is safe to assert that none of the pieces in his programme could have been better played." (Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion, London) ***Germany: Steven Herbert Smith "mastered his task brilliantly...with huge expressive powers. Smith, who engaged himself equally in all pieces, played brilliantly." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) ***"The unpretentious pianist captivated the audience immediately with the first songful bars of the F-Minor Ballade of Chopin, and reinforced this favorable impression in due course with a rich display of his significant capabilities." (Wiesbadner Tagblatt) ***Washington, D.C.: (Steven Herbert Smith at the National Gallery) "proved a prodigious keyboardist with an obvious affinity for modern music, good reasons why three of the contemporary pieces had been written for him...(a) fervent performance of the Schubert Sonata (Opus Posthumous in B Flat) featured an impressive display of control of tempo and dynamics. (F. Warren O'Reilly, Washington Times) ***Texas: "He exhibited extreme clarity and finger agility - discerning pedaling and a fine rhythmic poise made for a convincing performance." (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) ***Austria: "The pianist of the evening was Steven Smith. He played the piano Concerto in C Minor with a fully matured conception, with masculine determination, full of fire and energy and indeed owed nothing of expression to the sensitive places." (Salzburger Volkszeitung) ***France: "BEAU DEBUT DE SAISON MUSICALE AVEC STEVEN SMITH MERVEILLEUX PIANISTE: A "dazzling interpretation of the Fantasy in C Minor of Mozart"..."the 'Funeral' Sonata of Chopin was recreated for us by Steven Smith in all its tragic beauty." (Gazette des Yvelines)

Location State College, PA - USA

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