C. Curtis-Smith

In 2001, Curtis-Smith’s Twelve Etudes for piano was one of four compositions commissioned by the Van Cliburn Foundation for the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

In 1972, he pioneered the technique of bowing the piano. Pianist David Burge wrote about the technique, saying “Loose bows made of strands of fishline are woven throughout the piano strings at various places in the instrument … to give the pianist the possibility of crescendo and diminuendo on a single note or group of notes.”

Curtis-Smith received over 100 grants, awards and commissions, including the 1972 Koussevitzky Prize awarded by the Tanglewood Music Center, a 1978 Guggenheim Fellowship, and an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, among others.

Curtis-Smith performed at Carnegie Hall in 1968, and had several of his compositions performed at Carnegie Hall as well.

In 1968, Curtis-Smith joined the faculty of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he was Artist-in-residence and a part-time instructor of music composition.

Curtis-Smith was born in Walla Walla, Washington, and received a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College, where he studied with John Ringgold and David Burge. He received a Master of Music degree in piano at Northwestern University where he studied with Alan Stout and Guy Mombaerts. He pursued further studies at the University of Illinois with Kenneth Gaburo, the Tanglewood Music Center with Bruno Maderna, and in master classes at the Blossom Music Festival with Pierre Boulez. Curtis-Smith was an adjunct professor then full-time faculty at Western Michigan University from 1965-2012.

Curtis Curtis-Smith (September 9, 1941, Walla Walla, Washington – October 10, 2014, Kalamazoo Michigan), better known as C. Curtis-Smith or C.C. Smith, was a modernist American composer and pianist.