Brigham Young University recently appointed Boise State music alumnus Shawn Smith as associate professor of conducting and director of bands for the BYU School of Music. Smith previously served in similar roles at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and also at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Smith has conducted professional and educational ensembles throughout the United States and internationally. American Public Media’s program “Performance Today,” the most popular classical music radio program in the United States, plays recordings of his performances regularly.
Equally at home with opera and musical theater productions, Smith has conducted pit orchestras for the “Marriage of Figaro” and a six-week run of “Les Misérables.” Smith conducts regularly in Brazil including professional and community bands from the large cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to small towns and villages in Northern Brazil.
Smith has presented numerous educational clinics and speeches, most notably at the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago and at state music conventions in Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. He has also presented research at national and international conferences in the United States, Europe and South America. As a public school teacher, Smith served as director of bands and orchestra at one of the largest high schools in Idaho where he successfully led a comprehensive instrumental music program.