Nicholas Michael Smith


Nicholas Michael Smith OBE is a British conductor, composer, and music educator.
Since 1994, Smith has lived and worked in the People's Republic of China. His contributions to classical music performance and education in China have been the subject of documentaries and interviews on Chinese television and radio.
In 2011, Smith was awarded an OBE in recognition of his "services to music and to UK/China relations".

Biography

After relocating to Beijing in 1995, Smith worked with the Beijing Concert Hall on educational concerts to foster interest in western classical music with Chinese audiences. In 1997, Smith founded the Peking Sinfonietta and, in 2002, the Beijing International Festival Chorus.
In 2016 and 2018, Smith conducted a series of Chinese music concerts at London’s Cadogan Hall, performing Xian Xinghai’s Yellow River Cantata, choral arrangements of Chinese folk songs, and vocal settings of Tang poetry. He worked in collaboration with Canadian composer David Braid on improvisational performances fusing jazz piano and traditional Chinese music.
Smith has worked with Chinese author Hong Ying composing incidental music for her children’s book The Girl from the French Fort, premiering the work at Beijing Concert Hall in 2016. Smith has also translated several of Hong Ying’s children’s books into English.
In 2019, Smith's recording of the oratorio Corona Divinae Misericordiae by David Braid with soprano Patricia O'Callaghan was nominated for a Juno Award for 'Classical Album of the Year'.
In 2020, his recording of works by British composer Ed Hughes with , Ed Hughes: Time, Space & Change, was nominated by The Sunday Times as one of their 'Best Albums of 2020'.
Smith's first opera "The Stone God" had its premiere at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London, in November 2024, with musical direction by Justin Lavender.

Appointments

In 2007, Smith was appointed an honorary professor of conducting at the China Conservatory of Music. In 2012, he was appointed an honorary professor of the Tianjin Conservatory of Music. He also served as a governor of Harrow School, Beijing.

Personal life

Smith lives in Beijing with his wife, pianist Shen Yue, and their son.

Compositions and projects

Orchestral
  • Tears From My Bowl, 2015
  • An Englishman in Beijing, 2015
  • Changchun Impressions, 2016
  • The Girl From the French Fort, 2016, incidental music to accompany story by Hong Ying
Opera
  • The Stone God, 2024
Choral
  • Mass for St Barnabas, 1987
  • Introit, 1990, text from Psalm 31
  • Vegetable Picking Song, 1997, Sichuan folksong arr. for SATB choir
  • Rainy Day, 2015, Guangdong folksong arr. for SATB or SSA choir
Vocal
  • Two Poems, 1990, text by Robert Frost,
  • Love, Friendship and Longing, 2018, Tang poetry arr. for SATB soloists and piano duet
Solo and Chamber Instrumental
  • Maluccio, 1990, for organ
  • Four Microscopic Duets, 1990, piano duet
  • Memories of Childhood, 2019, piano duet
  • Waiting, 2020, for trumpet and piano
Arrangements