Dr Ronald Smart - music educator, conductor, juror and administrator - has an international reputation and a wide range of musical accomplishments and interests.
His career in music began when he was appointed to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trombonist while still a teenager, and he holds undergraduate degrees in performance and teaching from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, a Masters Degree in performance at the University of Cincinnati and a Doctorate in Music Education from the University of Southern California.
While living and studying in the USA Dr Smart developed a love of choral music and directed several choirs as well as orchestras, brass choirs, stage bands, wind orchestras and marching bands. He was guest professor at a number of universities, and for seven years was Director of Music at the famous Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles. During this time Dr Smart was a guest conductor in many US, Canadian, Australian and European cities.
He returned to Sydney in 1975 to take up an appointment at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and during twenty years at that institution involved positions as Head of Performance Studies, Deputy Director and then Director/Principal, retiring at the end of 1995.
Dr Smart has conducted concerts in many famous concert halls throughout the world, including the Kennedy Centre (New York), Rachmaninov Hall (Moscow), The Royal Albert Hall (London), The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Grand Theatre (Shanghai), and, of course the cultural icon of his home-town - the Sydney Opera House.
In 1989 he had the honour and pleasure of conducting the inaugural concert of the re-formed Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra in a series of much-acclaimed concerts. Each year he now travels to China to conduct their major orchestras, including the Symphony Orchestras of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Xaimen and has visited Beijing several times to direct master classes with promising young conducting students from the famous Central Music Conservatory. Dr Smart was recently in Shanghai, where he conducted the Shanghai Symphony in a highly-acclaimed "Jazz Meets the Orchestra" concert, with guest soloist, jazz virtuoso James Morrison.
Dr Smart is also an adjudicator at many music festivals, including the Bela Bartok International Choir Competition in Hungary, the Choir Olympics (held every two years in a different country) the All-Japan Chorus League Competition and Japan's International Chamber Choir Competition, the New York International Choral Festival, the Singapore Schools National Choral Competition, chief international adjudicator at the Hong Kong Music Festival, "Buenos Aires Sings", International Youth and School Choirs Festival, and other competitions in various countries.
In June, 1990, Dr Smart was awarded the Australian Public Service Medal (P.S.M.) in the Queen's Birthday Honours for his service to music.
email: yarranmusic@bigpond.com
