“…not the Director of the School of Music!”
Professor of Music
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Applied Composition
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Music Theory
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Orchestration
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Music and Well-Being Curriculum
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Healing Arts Ensemble
Education
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Bachelor of Arts, California State University
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Master of Arts, California State University
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D.Mus., Indiana University
Dr. Smith has been a professor in the School of Music at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia since 1976. As Director of Theory and Composition, he currently teaches graduate and doctoral level theory courses and maintains his own private composition studio. Several of his private students have won prestigious composition awards and have had their works performed throughout the Metropolitan DC area. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Bassoon Performance and a Master of Arts Degree in Theory and Composition at California State University, Hayward. He received his doctoral degree in composition with distinction from Indiana University. His composition teachers were Fred Fox and Bernhard Heiden.
Holding active memberships in the American Society of Composers; Authors and Publishers (ASCAP); the College Music Society (CMS) , and the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP), he is also affiliated with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being—originally called the Center for Consciousness and Transformation.
Dr. Smith created and directs a University Minor in Music and Well-Being, teaches its core courses—Music as a Healing Art, Music and Consciousness—and he directs GMU’s Healing Arts Ensemble, where students learn to apply music healing principles—taught in Music and Well-Being classes—to their performances. He began the more extensive Graduate Certificate Program in Music and Well-Being in the Fall of 2016.