Michael
Kent Smith
is a composer who uses guitar and dulcimer as well as
a variety of folk instruments, performing on them and taping the
various strands together into vivid, delightful music that is a blend
of classical, folk, Celtic, Spanish and jazz. His has a relaxed, open
rapport with audiences and keeps them engaged in his performances with
stories of the origins of the music and anecdotes from his global
travels.
Smith has toured Europe, Mexico and Africa and performs regularly around the United States with concerts at such notable venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and the Chicago Cultural Center. On the global front he has performed in the Festival Cervantino in Guanajuato Mexico, the International Festival of World Music in Mexico City and the International Guitar Festival in Zihuatanejo as well as touring with the Tom Sank Festival in Paris, Rome, Mali and Burkina Faso.
He studied classical guitar with Denis Azabagic, fingerstyle guitar with Martin Simpson and Edward Gehard, jazz with Richard Medel, composition with Howard Krueger and flamenco with Manuel Lozano in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. He was the principal composer in Pong Unit, the ensemble fronted by poet Marc Smith, inventor of the Poetry Slam. In addition he has won the Outstanding Soloist award at the prestigious Midwest Jazz festival and was voted Chicago’s Best Guitarist in 1989.
Smith has released three CDs, “After the Harvest” in 2002, “Beauty Without Warning” in 2005 and "La Esperanza SIgue" in 2010. He has also appeared as guitarist on CDs by a number artists including Marc Smith, Steven Hashimoto, Joe Hasiewicz and Al Rose. Smith is also a painter and printmaker and his work can be seen on the covers of all of his CDs.
