Thomas Smith loves to compose music that is intricate, vigorous and nuanced. Inspired by the natural world, he draws his creativity from rivers, oceans, earthly terrain and animals for his stirring and motion-filled aural landscapes. Equally fascinated by the inherent beauty and non-traditional timbres that occur in found objects, he has composed and performed a work for amplified guitar and percussion, Sonata for Guitar & Metal Shop, featuring tools and materials found in his basement workshop. Tapping and striking metal saw blades, sections of iron pipe and even an anvil fashioned from a railroad rail, he premiered the work at Philadelphia’s Community Education Center’s Performance In An Intimate Space (PIAIS) series. Always interested in the collaborative prospects of different artistic disciplines, he has been commissioned to create works for modern dance and his music has been heard on television as a soundtrack to the environmental awareness program Leaning Green, in addition to animated short films.
An October 2009 residency at Millay Arts allowed him the time and freedom to focus on composing his first chamber work for voice, guitar and wind quartet. The Birds of Winter was subsequently premiered for the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society Concert Series in February 2010, with the composer performing on guitar.
As a performer, Tom founded the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Trio and collaborated with mezzo-soprano Sharon Rhinesmith as the RhineSmith Duo. Between the two ensembles he recorded four CDs, performed in the Philadelphia area and toured the Mid-Atlantic states as a roster artist for the Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour program. The Philly Guitar Trio was invited to perform in the Puerto Rico Guitar Festival and in the Third Encuentro de Guitarra in Panamá. Tom has published voice and guitar arrangements through Theodore Presser and William Grant Still Music. ALRY Publications has most recently published his flute and guitar arrangements of Jules Mouquet’s Berceuse and Cinq Piéces Bréves. (Five Short Pieces). The majority of Tom’s compositions and arrangements are published by Milmont Park Music.