Matthew Smith

D.M.A. Michigan State University; M.M.E. University of Michigan; B.S. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Matt Smith is Interim Director of Bands at the University of Kansas, where he serves as co-conductor of the Wind Ensemble, conducts the Symphonic Band, and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. From 2011-2023 he directed the Marching Jayhawks, building the program to record numbers during his tenure. Previous appointments included positions at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Iowa State University, Baylor University, and the University of Michigan.

Raised in Fairfax, Virginia, Smith received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After teaching in the Maryland public schools, he completed a master's degree in music education from the University of Michigan. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting from Michigan State University, where his doctoral research focused on the on the early works of composer Joel Puckett.  

Smith has been active in the commissioning of new works, including composers Tom Davoren and Jonathan Newman, and consortiums for Peter Van Zandt Lane, Joni Greene, and Peter Meechan, among others. He has also collaborated with a number of guest artists, including Ronald Romm, Patrick Sheridan, Chris Vadala, Jon Lewis, and Mariam Adam. In 2016, Smith conducted the KU Symphony Orchestra with Kansas City Mayor Sly James serving as narrator for Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  Additional orchestral experience includes serving as acting music director for the Central Iowa Symphony, and co-music director of the Lawrence Community Orchestra from 2013-2024.

Smith is in frequent demand as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, and has presented clinics and research in the United States and several European countries. He has received research grants from the National Band Association and the Kurt Weill Foundation. Smith has been published in The Instrumentalist, the Journal of Band Research, Alta Musica, and the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. His professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association, National Band Association, International Society for Research and Promotion of Wind Music, National Association for Music Education, Kansas Bandmasters Association, and the Kansas Music Educators Association. Smith also holds membership in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma.