MusicSmiths
WELCOME TO MUSICSMITHS!
MusicSmiths -- Steven and Emily Smith, proprietors -- is a collaboration of local, versatile musicians providing music for all occasions in a variety of ensembles from solo flute to flute & string quartet, and more! For booking information, please visit the Silverwood Ensembles page.
We also teach private lessons on flute, violin, and viola. Please visit our Studio pages for studio lesson policies and fees. You will also find information about concerts and other performances posted on our home page, as well as links to our various musical pursuits. Whether it's a classical ensemble, swing band, ragtime orchestra, or a professional flute quartet, we have an ensemble to suit your event! Let us help to make your event even more special. Thanks for visiting -- we look forward to hearing from you!
Steven and Emily Smith
Steven Smith
Kansas City-born conductor, instrumentalist, and music educator Steven Smith holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois, and a bachelor’s in music education from Washburn University of Topeka.
Music director and conductor of the Olathe Community Orchestra since 1985, Steven has also served as conductor for thirty-seven summer musicals at Shawnee Mission Theater-in-the-Park, earning their Founders’ Award in 1997, and he has been conductor for numerous academic productions as well. Steven founded and conducted the Overland Park Chamber Orchestra during summers 1990-94.
Steven was director of orchestras and instructor of music theory at Paseo Academy, Kansas City’s high school for the performing arts, from 1987 to 2011, and since retiring has continued his involvement in the music classroom as a substitute band and orchestra teacher and clinician. Steven has been a private instructor of strings and woodwinds for more than 40 years, working at studios in Topeka, Shawnee, Lenexa, and Olathe Kansas, and he currently maintains a studio of violin and viola students at Metropolitan Conservatory in Olathe.
Continually active as a performer for over 40 years, Steven has appeared as a string and/or reed player, arranger, and vocalist with myriad ensembles playing diverse styles, including a stint as saxophonist with the Kansas City Chiefs TD Pack Band in 1995-97. Currently, Steven performs with the Silverwood Ensembles (classical), AnnaLee and the Lucky So ‘n’ Sos (swing), and Der Alpen Spielers (oompah), and he makes many freelance appearances as well. Steven is founder, leader, and instrumentalist for two early 20th-Century ensembles, the Sunflower Ragtime Orchestra and the Radio Days Orchestra.
Emily Smith
Emily Smith is a private flute instructor, principal flute with the Olathe Community Orchestra, and a teaching artist with Kansas City Young Audiences. She holds degrees in music from Kansas State University (B.M.E.) and the University of Kansas (M.M.E). A freelance flutist and flute instructor, Ms. Smith is accomplished on a variety of flutes, including C flute, piccolo, alto flute, bass flute, and fife. She performs regularly with the Silverwood ensembles, the Sunflower Ragtime Orchestra, and Collage flute quartet.
She co-founded The Kansas City Flute Choir and served as the group's Music Director/Conductor for ten years. She has also performed with the St. Joseph Symphony, the Liberty Symphony, the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, the Overland Park Community Orchestra, and the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Smith has performed several times on the Ruel Joyce Recital Series at the Carlsen Center in Overland Park, as well as on the Westport Center for the Arts' Brown Bag Concert Series. She has been a guest artist/master class clinician at Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, and Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.
As a flute educator, Ms. Smith has served as an adjudicator for district and state band auditions, regional and state solo/ensemble festivals, and Kansas Sousa Honor Band auditions. She was invited to give a presentation for a pedagogy workshop at the National Flute Association's Annual Convention in 2003. Under her direction, the Kansas City Flute Choir performed at the NFA Convention in Kansas City in 2008; she also led a flute choir reading session at the KC Convention. In 2009, Ms. Smith was awarded the Lighton Prize for Teaching Artist Excellence along with her KCYA colleagues, TriPercussion.
She maintains an active private flute studio in Olathe, KS, where she resides with her husband, musician Steven Smith, and two cats.