Michael Joseph Smith

Michael Joseph Smith (August 13, 1938April 10, 2022) was an American composer and pianist born in Tiline, Kentucky. At the age of 6 years, he gave his first concert of original solo piano music in Nashville, Tennessee. After serving in the United States Navy, he studied electro-acoustic music, moving between Boston and New York City, and became involved with the New England Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School. During this period, he developed a philosophy and notation form of his original music, titled ''Geomusic'', and composed works with this method for various chamber groups, solo piano, and symphony orchestra.

Throughout his career, Smith released 55 recordings of original compositions in 17 countries, featuring artists Jonas Hellborg, Steve Lacy, Michael Shrieve, Danny Gottlieb, Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughan. Regarded as a pioneer of computer-assisted composition, a film portrait of his life titled ''In Spiritual Exile'' was premiered in Sweden in 1983, and in the United States in 1984 via National Public Television Network (PBS). In addition, two further films were released about Smith, both titled ''Virtuosi Studies 1 and 2''.

In 2009, Smith co-founded WR Entertainment with James F. Cardwell, Ryan Wiik, Alan E. Bell, Duane M. Eberlein, Øyvind Holm-Johnsen and Steinar Larsen, and was included in the Swedish Musical Heritage project by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Sick and in palliative care for the later years of his life, Smith died from cancer on April 10, 2022. Provided by Wikipedia