DAWN SMITH, VIOLA
Pictured: Dawn (left) and Sarah Frisof in Zimbabwe
An honors graduate of New World School of the Arts High School in Miami, Florida, Dawn Smith, age 21, has soloed on the viola with the Moscow State Symphony in Russia and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. She has played with famed jazz musicians including Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Regina Carter, Chuck Mangione, Lalah Hathaway, and gospel legends The Clarke Sisters. She currently attends The Juilliard School in New York City where she is a fourth-year student studying under Mr. Samuel Rhodes, violist in the Juilliard String Quartet. Some of Ms. Smith's previous teachers include Kim Kashkashian, Karen Tuttle, Carol Rodland, Victoria Chang, Judith Singer Frishman, Charles Pikler, Richard Fleischman.
Ms. Smith has given performances in Turks and Caicos Islands; Moscow, Russia; St. Kitts and Nevis; Jamaica; Grand Cayman Island; Spoleto, Italy; and many more locations abroad. In January of 2006, she performed at the New York Viola Society's Collegiate Concert at New York's Donnell Library. Most recently, Ms. Smith was featured in the October 2006 issue of Glamour Magazine, where she was selected as a winner of "Glamour Magazine's Top 10 College Women" competition for her contributions to the arts. In addition, she was awarded a 2006 Strings Magazine Scholarship. In 2002, Ms. Smith received a full fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Florida First Lady's Scholarship Award, which led her to perform in Washington, DC for members of the United States Congress, and during the summer of that same year she was one of the featured soloists in the Santa Fe Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra's summer concert series in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In spite of a rigorous performance and academic schedule, Ms. Smith has also made time to share her teaching and performance skills with others. She held the position of primary strings instructor in the Strings Program at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in her hometown Miami until 2003, and she has frequently performed gratis with the touring orchestra for "Missionaries for the Poor," an international philanthropic organization that raises money for AIDS patients and under-privileged communities in the Caribbean and around the world. In the spring of 2006, Ms. Smith traveled to the hurricane-stricken city of New Orleans to help in the rebuilding of the city, and teach inner-city youth. She is active in several civic and music organizations including the NAACP, The Juilliard School's Multicultural Young Artist Network (MYAN) and ARTREACH, Sociedad Pro Arte Grateli Orchestra, and the 92nd Street 'Y' and Jubilate community orchestras.
Pictured: Dawn (left) and Sarah Frisof in Zimbabwe
An honors graduate of New World School of the Arts High School in Miami, Florida, Dawn Smith, age 21, has soloed on the viola with the Moscow State Symphony in Russia and the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. She has played with famed jazz musicians including Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Regina Carter, Chuck Mangione, Lalah Hathaway, and gospel legends The Clarke Sisters. She currently attends The Juilliard School in New York City where she is a fourth-year student studying under Mr. Samuel Rhodes, violist in the Juilliard String Quartet. Some of Ms. Smith's previous teachers include Kim Kashkashian, Karen Tuttle, Carol Rodland, Victoria Chang, Judith Singer Frishman, Charles Pikler, Richard Fleischman.
Ms. Smith has given performances in Turks and Caicos Islands; Moscow, Russia; St. Kitts and Nevis; Jamaica; Grand Cayman Island; Spoleto, Italy; and many more locations abroad. In January of 2006, she performed at the New York Viola Society's Collegiate Concert at New York's Donnell Library. Most recently, Ms. Smith was featured in the October 2006 issue of Glamour Magazine, where she was selected as a winner of "Glamour Magazine's Top 10 College Women" competition for her contributions to the arts. In addition, she was awarded a 2006 Strings Magazine Scholarship. In 2002, Ms. Smith received a full fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Florida First Lady's Scholarship Award, which led her to perform in Washington, DC for members of the United States Congress, and during the summer of that same year she was one of the featured soloists in the Santa Fe Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra's summer concert series in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In spite of a rigorous performance and academic schedule, Ms. Smith has also made time to share her teaching and performance skills with others. She held the position of primary strings instructor in the Strings Program at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in her hometown Miami until 2003, and she has frequently performed gratis with the touring orchestra for "Missionaries for the Poor," an international philanthropic organization that raises money for AIDS patients and under-privileged communities in the Caribbean and around the world. In the spring of 2006, Ms. Smith traveled to the hurricane-stricken city of New Orleans to help in the rebuilding of the city, and teach inner-city youth. She is active in several civic and music organizations including the NAACP, The Juilliard School's Multicultural Young Artist Network (MYAN) and ARTREACH, Sociedad Pro Arte Grateli Orchestra, and the 92nd Street 'Y' and Jubilate community orchestras.
Dawn participated in Project VI in Zimbabwe. Click here to read the travelogue she co-wrote with Sarah Frisof.
