Randall Smith

Randall Smith (Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 1960) began composing initially with experimental film, working with filmmakers living in his hometown of Toronto. In 1987 he composed his first solo tape piece, Fleeting Wheels of Changes. From this point until 1995 Randall Smith composed purely electroacoustic music. In 1992 he began to study the violin under Eugene Kash. Unknown to him at the time the real direction that this would lead to would be the writing for instruments and tape (mixed electroacoustic music). In 1995, after meeting cellist Daniel Domb, he composed his first mixed piece Continental Rift, for cello and tape. Since then Randall Smith has composed several other mixed pices. He received 1st Jury prize and Public prize at the Noroit-Léonce Petitot competition (Arras, France, 1996), 1st and 2nd prize at Luigi-Russollo competition (Varese, Italy, 1993, 95), the GMEM prize (Marseilles, France, 1993), and two mentions at the Bourges competition (France, 1993, 97). He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council. He has received commissions from ACREQ, Canadian Electronic Ensemble, Continuum, percussionist Beverly Johnston, accordionist Joseph Petric and Réseaux, to name a few. In 1998 Randall Smith began studying the tar, an Iranian string instrument, under Ahmad Ashraf-abadi (further combining his musical approach with diverse cultural musical ideas to create new works). Randall Smith is a fulltime composer and produces his music at his own studio in Toronto.