Biography of steven smith

STEVEN SMITH served as Music Director of Virginia’s Richmond Symphony from , launching his tenure with a gala concert featuring violinist Gil Shaham, to with a finale of "Carmen" in concert starring Denyce Graves.  During that time the Richmond Symphony performed a significantly wider repertoire representative of our global community, embracing music by living composers, with particular focus on cultural and gender diversity and commissioning new works.  During his tenure the RSO has weathered and recovered from the recession, seeing its budget climb over 30%, posting steadily increasing ticket sales (with the and seasons setting records of over $1 million in sales) and accomplished the first expansion of the core orchestra in over 20 years.  In addition, Smith has conceived and presented new concert series such as “Casual Fridays,” hourlong explorations (combining discussion with complete performances) of core repertoire with the full orchestra, and “Rush Hour,” a