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university organist
TIMOTHY SMITH accepted the appointment of Director of Music and Organist of New York’s famed Riverside Church in July, 1992, leaving the music staff of Trinity Church, Wall Street, where he had served since 1989. A graduate of Yale University, Smith holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music. His organ studies have been with W. Lindsay Smith, Thomas Murray and John Walker. Dr. Smith is the recipient of the Theodore Presser Award and the Harry Benjamin Jepson Award from Yale University, and The Clair Cocci Award fom the Manhattan School of Music. He has performed as organist with the Yale Philharmonia, The Manhattan School of Music Symphony, the Fairfield Chamber Orchestra and Period Academy, and the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra. In July of 1999, Smith accepted the post of Organist-in-Residence, St. Paul's Chapel of Columbia University, and was named University Organist in November, 1999.
Together with conductor James Simms and the Choir of Trinity Church, he has recorded The Organ and Choral Works of Larry King, former Director of Music at Trinity-Volume 5 of the series, Music from the Trinity Church, Wall Street, (Gothic Records). He served as contributing author for The Hymnal, 1982, Companion, Vol. II, which was published by the Church Hymnal Corporation of the Episcopal Church. Dr. Smith and the Riverside Church organ were featured in the 'Great Organs of New York,' an anthology of organists and their instruments throughout New York. Together with The American Boys Choir and The St. Thomas Choir (Fifth Avenue), he and The Riverside Choir can be heard with soprano Jessye Norman on her recent Christmas recording, In the Spirit (Philips Classics). His first solo recording on the Riverside Organ, Riverside '97! , was released by the Pro Organo label, and his next CD release was Volume 4 in the series Great Organ Builders of America: A Retrospective (JAV Recordings). His solo recording, On a Summer’s Evening, (JAV Recordings) which was recorded live during Riverside’s 1998 Annual Summer Series of Organ Recitals, followed and was praised in the May 1999 American Record Guide as "glorious", "superb playing", and "impressive". A new Christmas recording with The Riverside Choir, Behold the Star!, followed and in December a new spirituals was released by the choir, Touch the Spirit. This past August, his latest solo recording, Riverside 2001; Preludes & Pavanes, Sorties & Toccatas, was released as a sequel to his first Pro Organo disc.
As a recitalist, Smith has performed in some of the most beautiful and historic houses of worship in this country and abroad, including the cathedrals at Chartres, Beauvais, Notre-Dame, and the Church of St. Germain-des-Prez in France, as well as Lincoln and Wells Cathedrals in Great Britain. He returned to Britain last August where he was presented in recital at the Cardiff Organ Festival in Wales.
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