Craig Smith, 1947-2007
Craig Smith
Craig Smith was the founder of Emmanuel Music and an artistic beacon in Boston; that is an inadequate summarization of one so devoted to music, and who touched so many lives. It is well beyond my rhetorical powers to do justice to his remarkable life and career. Others more skilled and more knowledgeable have undertaken that task, since Mr. Smith died on November 14. I have been assembling obituaries and remembrances as they have appeared.
The Celebrity Series had the privilege of presenting three performances in which Criag Smith took part. The first was as part of an evening of collaborative music-making by pianist Judith Gordon in January of 2001. Mr. Smith joined soprano Lisa Saffer, mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal, tenor William Hite, baritone Mark McSweeney and Gordon for Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes. A rather small part of a full evening, but it is testament to Mr. Smith on two counts, both that he was included and that he came.
The second was conducting the ensemble he founded, Emmanuel Music, in an all-Mozart program with pianist Russell Sherman at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in January 2002.
And in 2006, Mr. Smith conducted Emmanuel Music from the orchestra pit of the Wang Theatre for our engagement of the Mark Morris Dance Group in Morris' L'Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato (set to Handel's music). He also conducted the work's premiere at Theatre Royal de la Monnaie where he was Permanent Guest Conductor from 1988-91.
Boston Globe (Jeremy Eichler)
The New York Times (Allan Kozinn)
The Boston Phoenix (Lloyd Schwartz)
Los Angeles Times (Mary Rourke)
The Rest is Noise (Alex Ross)
Radio Open Source (includes Smith conversation with Christopher Lydon)
Soho the Dog (Matthew Guerrieri)
The Hub Review (Thomas Garvey)
UPDATE: Composer John Harbison will become acting artistic director of Emmanuel Music. A brief announcement in a Boston Globe column can be found here.
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