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Shawn Smith
Shawn Smith is the Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Conducting for the Department of Music. Smith holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in instrumental conducting from Arizona State University, and Master of Music and Bachelor of Music Education degrees from Louisiana State University and Boise State University respectively. Prior to his appointment at UNC Charlotte, Smith spent eight years as Director of Bands at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.In high demand as a band and orchestra conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, Smith has been invited to conduct professional and educational ensembles throughout the United States and conducts regularly in South America. Smith has been invited to conduct professional ensembles including the Banda Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil), the Banda Sinfónica de la Província de Córdoba (Argentina), the Corpus Christi Symphony (Texas), and members of the Charlotte Symphony (North Carolina). 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. His performances have been heard numerous times on American Public Media’s “Performance Today,” the most popular classical music radio program in the United States.
Smith serves as a guest conductor and visiting professor of conducting for the annual International Festival of Music of Pará, Brazil, and has conducted professional and community bands throughout Brazil, from the large cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to small towns and villages in Northern Brazil.
In the area of research, Smith has been published in the Journal of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles and in Alta Musica and he has presented his research at national and international conferences in the United States, Europe, and South America. Smith has also presented numerous educational clinics, workshops, and speeches, most notably at the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois, and at state music conferences throughout the United States.
An accomplished trumpeter, Smith has served as principal trumpet in the top ensembles at Louisiana State and Boise State. He has also performed with the Corpus Christi Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic Orchestra (Idaho), the Acadiana Symphony (Louisiana), Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band, and with the Temptations.
