Kile Smith
Composer
“There is no other music like this.”—Craig Hella Johnson
News
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
Commissions, performances (Complete Calendar here)
New Work, text of Claude McKay. Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Joshua Habermann, 2023
The Book of Job. Opera for bass-baritone and chorus. Co-commission, Conspirare, The Crossing, 2023/24 season
Nirakar. Opera for soprano, mezzo, chorus. Two scenes, Erica Schuller, Bella Voce, Andrew Lewis, Chicago, 11 Mar 2023
New Work. Chor Leoni, Erick Lichte, 2024
New Work. The Choristers with orchestra, David Spitko, Bucks County PA, 2025Alleluia. SATB, 7′. Italy tour with Serenades Choral, David Hayes, Paulo Faustini, Jul 2022
The Arc in the Sky. SATB, 66′. Riga Project Choir, Christopher Walsh Sinka, Latvia, Oct 2022 • Reading Bach Choir, Daniel Mahoney, England, 8 Jul 2023
April Showers. Calliope’s Call, Marblehead 1 Oct, Boston 2 Oct 2022
Ave Maris Stella. SSATTB, 7, instr. Piffaro, the Renaissance Band with Variant 6, Oct 2021, Philadelphia. “Audience spellbound”—Broad Street Review. “Endlessly inventive … dramatic … three-dimensional gestures”—David Patrick Stearns
Canticle. SATB, 3 cellos, perc, 66′. West Coast premiere, Choral Arts Initiative, Brandon Elliott, 21 May 2023
Christmas and Magic. Premiere, duet version. Evangelia Leontis, soprano, Megan Roth, mezzo-soprano, Julia Carey, piano, Calliope’s Call, Boston, 2 Dec 2022.
Christmas and Magic. Premiere, “band” version, Calesta Day, David Nobles, the DePue Brothers Band, St. Cecilia School, Fox Chase, Philadelphia, 14 Dec 2022
The Consolation of Apollo. SATB, perc, 35′. New England Conservatory, Jordan Hall, Erica Washburn, 17 Nov 2022 • The Lotus Project, Alicia Brozovich, NJ State Museum Planetarium, Trenton, 3 Dec 2022, 28 Jan 2023
The Dawn’s Early Light. SATB, Cello, Four Guitars, 19′. Modern Notebook, Tyler Kline, WUSF, Tampa FL, 3 Jul
Go Forth into the World in Peace. 4’30”. Knox Church, Cincinnati, Earl Rivers, 11 Sep 2022
In the Midst of Life. SATB, 15′. William Ferris Chorale, Christopher Windle, Chicago, 7 May 2023
Jubilate Deo, for chamber orchestra. Premiere. Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, Sheldon Bair, Bel Air MD, 22 Oct 2022.
Jubilate Deo, for string orchestra. Premiere. Temple University Prep Annual Concert, Aaron Picht, Philadelphia, 17 Dec 2022
Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow. SATB, orchestra, 4′. Kennedy Center, Dec 2021, 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, Holy Trinity Lutheran, Abington PA, 27 Jul 2022 • Doris Hall-Gulati, clarinet, and string quartet, Wayne (PA) Presbyterian, 18 Sep 2022
Thirty Variations on a Theme of Bartók. Piano, 35′. Milena Urban, piano, 30th Anniversary commission by Community Music School, Trappe PA, 23 Apr 2022
Where the Mind Is Without Fear. SATB, 4’30”. University of New Mexico Concert Choir, David Edmonds, 22 Apr 2022
New Publications
Alleluia. SATB. Hal Leonard
The Bremen Town Musicians, for narrator & orchestra; for narrator & for violin, cello. MusicSpoke
Everyone Sang. SATB. MusicSpoke
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
Soon to be released: The Arc in the Sky (complete) and from it, Jerusalem as a separate octavo, from ECS Publishing
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]
Featured Video
Where the Mind Is Without Fear. SATB, 4’30”. Text by Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), No. 35 (1912). Commissioned by the University of New Mexico Concert Choir, Dr. David Edmonds, Conductor. Premiered by them 22 Apr 2022.