Grammy nominations
The Dawn’s Early Light. 2022 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance, The Singing Guitar – Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare, Austin Guitar Quartet, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Texas Guitar Quartet, Douglas Harvey, Estelí Gomez — Chicago Tribune Top 10 Classical Album, 2020 — WRTI Best of 2020 Album — Apple Music Featured New Album — Qobuz Grand Selection
The Arc in the Sky. 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance, The Crossing, Donald Nally
Canticle. Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble, Craig Hella Johnson, helped win 2020 Classical Producer of the Year Grammy for Blanton Alspaugh

Selected commissions (Complete Calendar here)
The Arc in the Sky. SATB, 66′. The Crossing, Donald Nally
April Showers. Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson
Ave Maris Stella. SSATTB, 7 instr. Piffaro, the Renaissance Band with Variant 6
The Book of Job. Opera for bass-baritone and chorus. Co-commission, Conspirare, The Crossing
Canticle. SATB, 3 cellos, perc, 66′. Vocal Arts Ensemble, Craig Hella Johnson
The Consolation of Apollo. SATB, perc, 35′. The Crossing, Donald Nally
The Dawn’s Early Light. SATB, cello, four guitars, 19′. Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson
Go Forth into the World in Peace. 4’30”. Knox Church, Cincinnati, Earl Rivers
In the Midst of Life. William Ferris Chorale, Christopher Windle, Chicago, 7 May 2023
Jubilate Deo, SATB, organ. Ursinus College, John French
Jubilate Deo, chamber orchestra. Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, Sheldon Bair
Jubilate Deo, string orchestra. Temple University Prep, Mark Huxsoll
Nirakar. Opera for soprano, mezzo, chorus. Two scenes, Erica Schuller, Bella Voce, Andrew Lewis, Chicago, 11 Mar 2023
New Work. Chor Leoni, Erick Lichte, Vancouver, Canada, 2024
New Work. The Choristers with orchestra, David Spitko, Bucks County PA, 2025
Northland. Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Joshua Habermann, 23 Jul 2023
Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow. SATB, orchestra, 4′. Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C., Scott Tucker
Sometimes It Happens So. Baritone, piano, 17′. Five-song cycle, the estate of poet Jane Flanders
There’s a Land Beyond the River. 3’30”. Blue Line String Quartet
Thirty Variations on a Theme of Bartók. Piano, 35′. Community Music School, Trappe PA
Where the Mind Is Without Fear. SATB, 4’30”. University of New Mexico Concert Choir, David Edmonds

New publications
Alleluia. SATB. Hal Leonard
The Arc in the Sky (complete) from ECS Publishing
The Bremen Town Musicians, for narrator & orchestra; for narrator & for violin, cello. MusicSpoke
Everyone Sang. SATB. MusicSpoke
Jerusalem (from The Arc in the Sky) as a separate octavo, from ECS Publishing
Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow. SATB, piano. Hal Leonard
The Star-Spangled Banner. SATB, piano, opt cello. Hal Leonard
There’s a Land Beyond the River. clarinet/piano, violin/piano, viola/piano, string quartet. MusicSpoke

Recent recordings
The Bremen Town Musicians, for orchestra. On the CD Fiddles, Forests, and Fowl Fables with Gemma Whelan, narrator, Kenneth Woods, conductor

About

Kile Smith’s critically-acclaimed music has received three Grammy nominations and is hailed nationally and internationally for its strong voice, sheer beauty, and “profoundly direct emotional appeal.” He’s been commissioned by The Crossing, Conspirare, Piffaro, Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Chor Leoni, Helena Symphony, Choral Arts Society of Washington, Lyric Fest, Westminster Choir College, Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, Newburyport Chamber Music Festival, the Pennsylvania and iSing Girlchoirs, Choral Arts Washington, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Gaudete Brass, and many others. Kile’s first opera, The Book of Job, co-commissioned by The Crossing and Conspirare, premieres in Philadelphia and Austin in the 2023/24 season.

The Singing Guitar (Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson) including Kile’s The Dawn’s Early Light with the L.A. Guitar Quartet and cellist Douglas Harvey, received a 2022 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance. The English Symphony Orchestra released The Bremen Town Musicians with Gemma Whelan, narrator, on CD. The Philadelphia Orchestra featured Bremen in their “Our City, Your Orchestra” chamber music series. Ave Maris Stella was commissioned and premiered by Piffaro, the Renaissance Band in 2021 with Variant 6. Ricardo Morales premiered There’s a Land Beyond the River, for clarinet and piano. The Arc in the Sky with The Crossing received a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance, and the Canticle CD by Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble helped win the 2020 Classical Producer of the Year Grammy for Blanton Alspaugh. Hal Leonard publishes Alleluia, Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow, The Star-Spangled Banner, and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Kile’s Where Flames a Word helped Voces Musicales win the 2020 Estonian Recording of the Year.

Major choral works are heard in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Canada, England, and New Zealand. Gramophone called Vespers “spectacular” and Audiophile Audition, “easily one of the best releases of the year of any type… a crime to pass up.” Westminster Choir sang The Consolation of Apollo in 2022, continuing its run of over 50 performances. Ten CDs with his music have been released since 2018. Kile has also been performed by Seraphic Fire, The 24, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Sofia Philharmonic, the Grand Rapids and Delaware symphonies, Orchestra 2001, and Network for New Music. [Photo Credit: A. J. Waltz]

Longer bio here …

Featured Video

The Star-Spangled Banner (2021). SATB, piano, opt. cello, 5’30”. Available from Hal Leonard, Craig Hella Johnson series. Movement 5 from The Dawn’s Early Light (complete work for SATB, Cello, Four Guitars, 20′, available from MusicSpoke). This is not an arrangement, but entirely original music to the “O say, can you see” text by Francis Scott Key. The octavo is SATB div, piano, and opt. cello. This video, David Hahn, conductor, DMA Dissertation Recital, 6 Feb 2022, University of Michigan, Dakota Cotugno, cello, Joshua Marzan, piano