Craig Smith (musician)

Craig Smith (d. 2007 at 60) was both founder and Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music and, from 1988-91, was the Permanent Guest Conductor of the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Belgium.

For 35 years with Emmanuel Music, Mr. Smith conducted a Cantata of J.S. Bach each week as part of the Sunday worship service at Boston's Emmanuel Church. As artistic director of Emmanuel Music, Mr. Smith presided over a popular and critically acclaimed concert series which has included the Passions, Christmas Oratorio, and B minor Mass of Bach; Mozart and Handel operas; major symphonic works; chamber series surveying the complete vocal, piano and chamber works of great composers (currently Schumann); and world premieres and commissions by composer John Harbison.

Smith collaborated with stage director Peter Sellars in opera productions presented in the USA at Pepsico Summerfare, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, the American Repertory Theatre, and the Opera Company of Boston. Their productions of the three Mozart/da Ponte operas, Cosi fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Don Giovanni were premiered at Pepsico Summerfare, later performed throughout the US and Europe, filmed with the Vienna Symphony for European and American television, and later recorded on video compact disc for Decca Records. Their recent collaboration on Bach Cantatas (BWV 199 and 82), with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, was presented in Boston, New York City, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Vienna, and Lucerne, and has been released to critical acclaim on Nonesuch Records.

As principal guest conductor of the Monnaie Theatre, Mr. Smith collaborated with choreographer Mark Morris for two seasons, and has since toured with these productions to Boston, Minneapolis, New York City's Lincoln Center, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Holland, Israel, and New Zealand. He conducted the Vienna Symphony, the Dresden Stattskapelle, the Northern Sinfonia, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Smith made his Houston Grand Opera debut conducting Handel's Giulio Cesare directed by Nicholas Hytner. His work with Emmanuel Music has been the subject of numerous radio and television specials including National Public Radio's Performance Today, and CBS Sunday Morning. With Emmanuel Music, he recorded three highly acclaimed CDs of a capella music by Heinrich Schutz, works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison who is closely associated with Emmanuel Music, and works of J.S. Bach. In 2008, Avie Records released a disc of Bach and Handel, "Lorraine at Emmanuel," honoring the work of Smith and Hunt Lieberson there. Mr. Smith taught at Juilliard, MIT, New England Conservatory, and Boston University.

[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2007/11/15/craig_smith_60_with_emmanuel_he_created_a_nexus_of_joy_and_music/ An obituary from the Boston Globe, November 15, 2007]

[http://www.emmanuelmusic.org/ Emmanuel Music, where he developed the Bach cycles, and worked with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.]