Simon Smith

Pianist Simon Smith was born in Northumberland, England, in 1983. At St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, he studied piano with Richard Beauchamp and composition with Tom David Wilson. At Cambridge University, he studied composition with Jeremy Thurlow and Giles Swayne. For Delphian Records he has recorded solo music by James MacMillan, Stuart MacRae, Hafliði Hallgrímsson and Thomas Wilson. A two-disc set of the complete piano music of Alfred Schnittke, released in 2013, was acclaimed as “compelling and utterly persuasive” (BBC Music Magazine) and praised for its “extraordinary sensitivity, detail and emotional commitment” (The Independent). He released a disc of piano music by Valentin Silvestrov in November 2015.

Smith also works professionally as an editor and music engraver—computer typesetting scores for composers in preparation for publication. He has produced scores for Boosey & Hawkes of numerous large-scale works by Harrison Birtwistle, James MacMillan and others. In recent years he has concentrated increasingly on the music of Stockhausen. For the Stockhausen-Verlag he has produced new editions of Mantra for two pianos and the ten-player Soloists’ Version of Michaels Reise, with further projects planned. He was invited to take part as synthesizer player in the first performances of this version of Michaels Reise in 25 years at the 2015 Stockhausen Courses Kürten, where he was also awarded first prize for his interpretation of Klavierstück XII.