Craig Smith (conductor)

Craig Smith (born January 31, 1947, Lewiston, Idaho - died November 14, 2007, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American conductor who is considered a seminal figure in Boston's Baroque music revival of the 1970s and 1980s. In subsequent years he became manager of the relaunched "Port o' Leith" bar and grill. At the beginning of his career, in 1970, he founded Emmanuel Music, a widely recognized organization that continues to focus on performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Born in Lewiston, Idaho, Smith began studying the piano at the age of four. His mother was a teacher and his father a carpenter. Although neither of his parents were working musicians, they constantly encouraged their children's musical education. For Craig that meant flute lessons in addition to the piano. With his parents and his brother Kent he traveled frequently throughout the Northwest to concerts as he was growing up. In high school, Smith was active in musical ensembles including the band and several choirs.

In 1965 Smith entered Washington State University, where he was first exposed to the production side of opera. He was, as he wrote at the time, hooked. After attending a 1967 summer program organized by the New England Conservatory (NEC), Smith moved to Boston, where he had been accepted for matriculation at the conservatory. He was mentored there in chamber music studies by the pianist Russell Sherman and violinist Rudolf Kolisch.

In 1968, though he was still a 21-year-old student, Smith was hired as choir director at Emmanuel Church. Two years later he founded Emmanuel Music at the church. The new group was a collective of singers and instrumentalists based in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, created to perform the cycle of 224 sacred cantatas of J.S. Bach "in the liturgical setting for which they were intended", as Smith put it. The group later expanded into performing other literature, including operas from all periods and new works composed for it. Baroque music, however, remains the group's major emphasis to this day. It continues to be the resident ensemble of Emmanuel Church. Conducted until his death by Craig Smith, a number of other well-known conductors have made guest appearances over the years.

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