About Richard

Richard Joseph Smith, a native of central Alabama, has been a music performer, teacher, and adjudicator across the country. He has performed as a soloist with the Chilton Pops Orchestra and Chorale, as well as the principal flutist and piccoloist for multiple orchestras, wind ensembles, and music festivals along the east coast. He was named the winner for the state of Alabama in the wind/brass solo category of the Assemblies of God Fine Arts festival in both 2009 and 2010, and he traveled to Orlando, FL to compete in the national festival in 2009.

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Over the last couple of years, Richard has been asked to judge multiple state-wide music competitions in Florida. As an avid teacher, Richard has coached a wide range of performers. From teaching private lessons, to full classroom education, he has taught music theory and performance technique to students from Costa Rica to New York. Currently a flute and piccolo student of Lisa Jaklitsch Westervelt at Stony Brook University on Long Island, Richard has also studied with teachers such as Ray Furuta, and Carol Wincenc. Combining success as a performer, his accomplishments as an aspiring musicologist helped him to be unanimously voted by the Stony Brook University music faculty as the 2013-2014 Theodore Presser Scholar. Richard is currently working toward upcoming competitions and festivals, as well as an Honors thesis concerning the possible effect of weather on music in early modern Europe.

 Visit Richard’s ePortfolio for samples of his work

Outside of the musical world, Richard has ties in academic advising and education. His experience spans from online learning database management  and having served as an Orientation Leader, to working for Academic Transfer & Advising Services and the Undergraduate Colleges at Stony Brook University. One of his career focuses is to study the traits of effective curriculum, and to help design a purposeful, effective, and above all, organic education plan for future generations.

I’m an avid learner, and an aspiring flutist, musicologist, and polyglot. I’ll always be a teacher in my day-to-day life, but one day I’ll be a professor.

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