Mark Russell Smith Director of New Music Projects

Mark Russell Smith is Director of New Music Projects at The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Minnesota, a shared post that is part of a partnership between the two organizations. Smith enjoys a burgeoning international reputation that has already brought him engagements and re-engagements with prestigious American orchestras, including the Minnesota Orchestra, where he will make his subscription debut in March of 2009, the Saint Louis Symphony, and the Houston Symphony. Smith is also Music Director of the Richmond Symphony and the Quad City Symphony. Other recent appearances include the Hartford Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa, the Phoenix Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the Eugene Symphony, the Curtis Opera Theatre, the Jacksonville Symphony, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Tulsa Philharmonic, Orchestra London (Ontario), and the European Center for Opera and Vocal Art in Ghent, Belgium. A champion of the music of our time, Smith has collaborated with legendary cellist YoYo Ma and members of the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota in Hún Qiáo (Bridge of Souls); a concert of remembrance and reconciliation featuring world premieres by Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and American composers. Smith is a graduate in cello performance of the Juilliard School and of the Curtis Institute of Music.