Kuopion Kaupunginorkesteri

Nicholas Smith

Nicholas Smith acted as the KSO conductor in 1982-1989.

Nicholas Smith, a british conductor, followed Lauri Siimes as the Kuopio Orchestra’s conductor in 1982 and directed the orchestra into a new “European” season introducing the public with Proms concerts as well as new ideas from abroad. Smith’s cooperation with the KO ended in 1989.

Smith started his career as an oboist with the help of the legendary Leon Goosens but orchestra conducting soon became his main interest. In 1976 Smith studied under Franco Ferrera in Sienna. Numerous world-renowned conductors such as Kyung Whun Chung, Yoel Levi and Martin Fischer-Dieskau also participated this famous Master Class during which Smith was rewarded with Diploma de Merito.

Nicholas Smith has been in charge of orchestras and opera companies for more than thirty years and on both sides of the Atlantic. He has conducted orchestras in a dozen countries, making him adept at communicating with few words. Many concerts have been broadcast on radio and television and he has recorded CDs with Finnish, British and Czech orchestras.

In the theatre Nicholas has conducted for French, Finnish, British and American ballet companies, and for more than thirty opera productions in a curious assortment of languages.

He has enjoyed performing large scale choral works, and has conducted choirs from Germany, Belgium and Spain as well as his ‘home’ countries of The United States, Finland and the UK. He has probably conducted more concerts with fireworks than any other conductor in the world – well over 300!

Smith has also acted as the Music Director of the South Carolina Philharmonic and as the Artistic Director of the Bollington Festival in England. His abiding passion has been to allow anyone and everyone the opportunity to enjoy orchestral music.

 

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