About
Caitlin Smith is a composer based in Toronto. She also works as a conductor, arranger and copyist, and clarinetist.
After completing a BMus in Jazz Studies from Humber College in Toronto, she spent a year in New York studying composition with Jim McNeely on a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. There, she also took lessons in orchestral conducting and founded a 50-piece jazz philharmonic orchestra with the Wanton Fawns composers’ collective.
Caitlin founded the 19-piece Tiny Alligator Large Band in Toronto in 2005, and continues to conduct and write music for this ensemble (which includes six woodwinds, six brass, four rhythm section and three vocalists.)
She served as an assistant producer on albums for Darcy Argue’s Grammy- and Juno-nominated Secret Society Big Band (Infernal Machines) as well as for the Daniel Jamieson Orchestra’s debut record.
As a performer, Caitlin performs regularly with folk-rock, jazz and classical music ensembles. She holds certificates in clarinet and harmony from the Royal Conservatory of Music.
List of works composed
| February, 2011 | Pour les enfants, par les enfants 20 minutes Settings of poetry by French-language students in Toronto. In collaboration with the Wanton Fawns composers collective. A co-production with the Alliance Française Toronto, to be premiered at the Alliance in March, 2011. |
| January, 2011 | Safe and Healthy Homes for Children 65 minutes A re-working of a previous song cycle, scored for 18-piece jazz chamber orchestra and 3 voices, to be premiered on March 13th, 2011 at the Alumnae Theatre in a partially-staged presentation. |
| December, 2010 | Sad Songs and Waltzes 4 minutes Scored for a chamber ensemble of baroque period instruments, and premiered by the Aradia Ensemble at Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto in February, 2011. |
| July, 2010 | When This War Ends 6 minutes Scored for string quartet. |
| June, 2010 | Convergence and Divergence, Mvt II 9 minutes A collaboration with the Wanton Fawns composers collective, commissioned by the Viceroy Brass Ensemble for the 2010 International Women in Brass Conference. |
| April, 2010 | And All of Your Animal Tendencies 55 minutes A draft version of a song cycle, scored for 18-piece jazz chamber orchestra and 3 voices. Premiered at the Music Gallery in Toronto in April 2010. |
| February, 2009 | (In a Different Life I Would) Tango Supply and Demand 6 minutes and 5 minutes Both scored for 50-piece orchestra, including jazz rhythm section and voice. Recorded in workshop at Carrol Music in New York. |
| June, 2008 | Prelude 6 minutes Commissioned by Chuck Owens’ Jazz Surge Big Band, and premiered at the International Jazz Composers’ Symposium in Tampa, FL. |
| March, 2008 | von armen BB 8 minutes A setting of a poem by Bertolt Brecht, scored for 18-piece jazz orchestra with operatic soprano. Premiered in concert at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church November 2008. |
| November, 2007 | Goat Songs 9 minutes Three-movement setting of prose by Salman Rushdie, scored for jazz orchestra, jazz vocalist, operatic soprano and improvising tenor saxophone. |
| 2005-2008 | Various Works Totalling 65 minutes Scored for an 18-piece jazz orchestra which includes bassoon, oboe and jazz vocalist; performed at jazz clubs around Toronto including the Rex Hotel, the Tranzac and the Trane Studio, as well as the Brooklyn Lyceum in Brooklyn, NY |
| August, 2005 | Mooristan 8 minutes Commissioned by the Darren Sigesmund Big Band. Premiered by the Sydney Improvising Musicians’ Association in Sydney, Australia |