Miriam K. Smith

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Emerging Brilliance: Miriam K. Smith and <br>Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony

For years, the SSO has maintained a tradition of highlighting up-and-coming talent in the realm of symphonic music. Witness the remarkable skills of teenage cellist Miriam K. Smith alongside the enduring magnificence and emotional depth of Tchaikovsky’s 5th symphony.

Repertoire

Lowell Liebermann  Three Dances from Frankenstein, op. 140

Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No.1, in A minor, Op. 33

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, Th 29 in E minor

Concert Sponsor

Springfield Symphony Orchestra Foundation

BIO

Her meteoric rise has included the release of four albums: Ignite, which won a 2018 Global Music Award; and Flair, recordings of works by Barber, Falla, Piazzolla, and Tchaikovsky, out now on MSR Classics and all digital platforms. Her third album, Momentum, on Azica Records and all digital platforms, contains works of Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Boulanger and received immediate playlisting on Apple and Spotify.  Her latest commercial release is Kodály, featuring the composer’s Sonata for Solo Cello in B minor, Op. 8 as a digital release on Azica Records.  Of her playing, Maestro J.R. Cassidy, Music Director of the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, said, “I would go so far as to say, I have never heard the depth of artistry at such an age. Her command and control, her shaping of phrases, dynamic range, intonation are truly beyond her years.”

Miriam made her orchestral debut at age 8 performing Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Seven Hills Sinfonietta. Since then, engagements have included her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Louisville Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations and as featured soloist with the Wright State Chamber Orchestra. Miriam opened the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s 2019 Masterworks Series with the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1. Recent concerto appearances include performances with the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, and her debut performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra in both in-person and live-streamed concerts. Miriam was featured soloist in the Youngstown Symphony’s season opening concert in September 2021.

While on tour, Miriam performs private and public community outreach concerts, as well as television and radio interviews, and has an episode featured on PBS’s Emmy-winning Showcase with Barbara Kellar. She has performed in recital at Carnegie Hall twice as first place winner of American Protégé International and American Fine Arts Festival competitions, as well as the Cleveland Orchestra’s Rainbow concerts and the 2016 and 2017 Emerging Artists series of the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, VT. In 2018, Miriam gave solo recitals in Cincinnati and Chicago and performed as concert soloist for an outdoor crowd of more than 40,000 in the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s televised Concerts on the Square. Miriam is also a highly sought-after chamber music performer, with many recitals and concerts given throughout the country. She was inducted into the Cello Museum in June 2021, and is the 2023 recipient of the MacDowell Society (Cincinnati chapter) Artist Grant, and YoungArts winner for 2024.

Miriam lives with her family in Cincinnati and studies with Alan Rafferty. Outside of the concert hall, she holds a blue belt in the Israeli Defense Forces art of krav maga, and regularly participates and performs in ballet studio. Miriam plays on a 18th century cello of an unknown maker.

PARKING

Parking is available in the lot north of the Performing Arts Center, the eastern Clark State lot on Limestone Street and the northeastern Clark State lot on Limestone Street at the Brinkman Educational Center. There is also a lot south of the Clark County Public Library on Fountain Avenue. Parking is free.

ACCESSIBILITY

We are pleased to serve our patrons with special needs. Please call the PAC Ticket Office at 937.328.3874 to detail your needs and to reserve special seating for wheelchair patrons, listening enhancement devices or an interpreter for signed performances (at least five days notice is required). Parking spaces for those with disabilities are available in a lot immediately adjacent to the Performing Arts Center; a passenger loading and unloading area is located on Fountain Avenue to the west of the Center.