August 21 - Gregg Smith (The Musical Birthday Series, 2nd Annual Cycle)

Gregg Smith (21 August 1931 - 12 July 2016) was an American choral conductor and composer.

[For last year's tribute to Janet Baker click here.]

Smithereens

"My great pride is that we don’t belong to any clique,...We’ve sung many different kinds of music. You name it — serial, atonal, Americana, Minimalist — we’ve sung it." Gregg Smith, qtd, in his New York Times obituary.

The Gregg Smith Singers did the trick 

Of staying out of any clique.

Some may think they spent their lives

Singing Billings, singing Ives,

When in fact, they spent their careers

Doing dozens of premieres,

Striving always to program a

Stylistic panorama.

 

 

 

 

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