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Lucas Marshall Smith (b. 1989) is a composer/performer who engages with chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electroacoustic music of varying aesthetics.  His music endeavors to understand the human experience through the lenses of internal/external cognition, religion/spirituality, and tone/noise relationships.  Smith’s work has received accolades from the American Prize2nd place in the 2017-18 opera/theater/film/dance division for his one-act opera, A Psalm of Silenceand an Honorable Mention in 2016-17 for his choral work Lux Aeterna—and the ASCAP Foundation—a finalist in the 2018 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards for his chamber orchestra piece, …through a glass, darkly…

 

Smith’s music has enjoyed both national and international performance.  Some recent performances include the Toronto International Electroacoustic Music Symposium (TIES), the International Electroacoustic Music Exhibition (MUSLAB), the RED NOTE New Music Festival, the Society of Composers, Incorporated Student National Conference (SCI), the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States National Conference (SEAMUS), the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), the Electronic Music Midwest Conference (EMM), and the National Student Electronic Music Event (NSEME).  Smith has received premieres and commissions from ensembles and music organizations including the New York based Choral Composer/Conductor Collective (C4), ensemble loadbang, the Illinois Modern Ensemble, the Heartland Sings chorale, and ensemble mise-en.  Also, active as a performer in the contemporary music scene, Smith is a third of the experimental noise/metal trio, TATWD (a.k.a. Turtles All the Way Down).  Smith's music is recorded on music from SEAMUS Volume 28 and the RMN Classical music label.

 

Smith holds degrees from Bowling Green State University (B.M. 2012) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (M.M. 2014) and is currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Illinois. Previously in his graduate studies, Smith worked as the Operations Assistant for the Experimental Music Studios under the direction of Eli Fieldsteel and Scott A. Wyatt. He also held teaching assistant positions for the university’s Aural Skills and Music Theory courses.  Some of his former composition teachers have included Burton Beerman, Carlos Carrillo, Christopher Dietz, Erin Gee, Marilyn Shrude, Reynold Tharp, Stephen Taylor, and electroacoustic studies with Elainie Lillios and Scott A. Wyatt. 

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