Howie Smith

Howie Smith (born February 25, 1943), is a saxophonist, composer, jazz musician and educator

Howie Smith was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1943. He was an instructor for the University of Illinois Division of Music Extension from 1970 to 1973 and also taught at Northern Illinois University in 1971.

In 1973, under a Fulbright grant, he set up the first tertiary level jazz studies program in Australia at the New South Wales State Conservatorium (now named the Sydney Conservatorium of Music). He remained as Director of Jazz Studies through 1976, and was a member of the Australian group Jazz Co/op from 1974 through 1976.

Howie Smith is a full professor at Cleveland State University, has been a frequent performer with the Cleveland Orchestra and soloist with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony since 1982, and has presented numerous concerts and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and Australia.

Born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1943; Howie Smith graduated from Reading Senior High School in 1961. Early studies with his first music teacher, J. Carl Borelli, included clarinet and saxophone pieces from the classical and jazz repertoire. At Mr. Borelli's urging Smith auditioned for and was offered a scholarship to attend Ithaca College as a clarinet major, and at age 22 he received a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Music Education from Ithaca College, then going on to the University of Illinois where he received his Master's degree in 1968 (also in Music Education).

Here he joined the University of Illinois Jazz Band, one of the most highly respected big bands in the USA at that time, touring eastern and western Europe with that band in 1968 as well as performing at the 1969 Newport Jazz Festival. As a freelance musician Smith composed and produced commercial jingles for radio and television between 1966 and 1972, and in the late 1960s and early 1970s toured with Elvis Presley, Glen Campbell, Bob Crosby, Warren Covington and Les Elgart, among others.

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