An internationally acclaimed horn player, music educator, lecturer,
and clinician, Dr. Patrick Smith actively challenges and stimulates
students in both performance and academic settings. He is the director
of the Horn Choir at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where he
also teaches applied horn lessons, coaches horn trios, horn quartets,
brass quintets, and other chamber music ensembles. In addition to his
duties related to horn performance, Dr. Smith is the area coordinator
for Music History and teaches courses in World Musical Styles and
Western Art Music.  continued...

A native of Gainesville, Florida, Dr. Smith began playing the horn at
age 11 and later attended the University of Florida, earning a Bachelor of
Music Education Degree and the coveted Performer’s Certificate. At the
University of Florida, his horn teachers included Paul Basler and Bruce
Atwell. He then received a full scholarship from the Hartt School in
Hartford, Connecticut. There, Dr. Smith was an active participant in the
Performance 20/20 chamber music program, studied horn with David Jolley,
and studied music history with Kenneth Nott. In 1998, Dr. Smith earned his
Master of Music Degree in horn performance from the Hartt School before
embarking on a three-year public school teaching engagement and
developing a successful freelance career. He returned to the University of
Florida in 2001 and earned a Ph.D.in Music under the tutelage of Paul
Basler (horn) and David Z. Kushner (music history). The title of his
dissertation was “Julius Watkins and the Evolution of the Jazz French
Horn Genre.”

Dr. Smith is an alumnus of the Aspen and Brevard Music Festivals and
has performed with numerous professional ensembles, including the North
Carolina, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Valdosta, Florida West Coast, Lynchburg,
and Ridgefield Symphony Orchestras, the American Chamber Winds, and
he Carolina Wind Quintet. He has appeared as a soloist with the Emerson
String Quartet, the Hartford Brass Quintet, the Gainesville Symphony, the
University of Florida Jazz Band and the VCU Symphony Orchestra. Dr.
Smith has been an active member of the International Horn Society since
his days as an undergraduate student. He was the winner of the
Southeast Solo Horn Competition in 1996, was named First Runner Up in
the 1997 Farkas International Solo Horn Competition, and was a featured
soloist at the 37 th International Horn Symposium in June of 2005. He has
recorded for the Mark Custom and Capstone record labels with the
American Chamber Winds and the New England New Music Ensemble
respectively. Dr. Smith performs on the Willson CS240 Kruspe model horn
and is a Willson Performing Artist. He has served on the faculties of the
Eastern Music Festival, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and
is currently Assistant Professor of Horn and Music History at Virginia
Commonwealth University.