Dr. Carol Smith
Contact Information
Dr. Carol Smith
Music Education
Conducting
Phone: (936) 294-1358
Office: Room 8
E-mail: csmith@shsu.edu
Profile of Dr. Carol Smith
Carol Smith is in her 31st year as Professor of Music in the School of Music, Sam Houston State University, where she also served as Director of Orchestral Studies and Conductor of the SHSU Symphony & Chamber Orchestras for 29 years. She was appointed to the position of Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at SHSU in January 1995, where she served for some 5 years. Earlier, she served as Associate Chair of the School of Music for 8 years. In addition to her duties in orchestral studies, she is the Artistic Director of the Huntsville Youth Orchestra, served as Director of the SHSU Orchestra Camps, and was Musical Advisor of the International Conductors' Institute for 10 years.
Guest conducting appearances in 9 European countries and 28 states throughout the USA have included engagements with the orchestra from the Vienna Academy of Music at the International Festival of Music in Feldkirch, Austria as well as festivals in Germany and Switzerland. Dr. Smith has conducted festivals from North Dakota to Oklahoma to Kentucky; civic and youth orchestras such as the Houston Youth Symphony, Monroe Symphony, Houston Symphony North, the Midland-Odessa Symphony and the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra; numerous regional orchestras and all-state organizations; musical theatre orchestras throughout Texas and Oklahoma, as well as numerous SHSU opera and musical theatre performances. She has worked extensively as an adjudicator, clinician, and conductor; she is a published editor and arranger of music. Her university performance groups have performed in tours and festivals in Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, England, and the Republic of China.
Dr. Smith received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and her bachelor and master degrees from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, where she served as graduate assistant to B. R. Henson. She has studied extensively in the fields of orchestral conducting, string pedagogy and chamber music coaching at the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California, the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Texas and in master classes, and festivals at Tanglewood, Aspen, Interlochen and Marlboro. Additional limited studies have included work with Julius Herford, Sir George Solti, Otto-Werner Mueller, Leonard Slatkin, Edvard Melkus, Cornelius Eberhardt, James Dixon, Elizabeth Green, Samuel Applebaum, Robert Shaw, and A. Clyde Roller.
Prior to her present position, Dr. Smith held teaching positions at Southwest Texas State University [Texas State University] and in the public schools at both McAllen and Fort Worth. She was also Music Consultant for the Texas Education Agency for 5 years. Dr. Smith was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to Harvard University, for advanced studies in the symphonies of Beethoven with Beethoven scholar Lewis Lockwood. Further, she has worked as an intern with President Matina Horner, Radcliffe College, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts and served on the Music Advisory Board of Wetminister Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.
In recent summers, Dr. Smith has worked with Maestro Cornelius Eberhardt at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. She has also served as the national secretary of the American String Teachers Association with the National School Orchestra Association after six years on the executive board and president of the American String Teachers Association, Texas Chapter. Dr. Smith works as a conductor and clinician sponsored by Conn-Selmer Instruments, Inc. She recently completed a six year term, serving the Music Teachers National Association as a member of the Pedagogy Committee. Additionally, she was named the 2001 recipient of the Sam Houston State University Faculty Service Achievement Award and a recent recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Special Faculty Recognition Award. In 2002, she was awarded the Citation of Leadership and Merit by the national organization American String Teachers Association with the National School Orchestra Association. She was recently honored by the national Sigma Alpha Iota.
Dr. Smith was recently appointed to the board of the Houston Friends of (Chamber) Music. In May 2008, Dr. Smith retired to halftime teaching (conducting) and Director of Music Education at SHSU where she was recently named Distinguished Professor Emeritus.