Hornist Martin Smith of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has passed away on September 24, 2005.
Mr. Smith, co-principal horn with the Pittsburgh Symphony, died unexpectedly Saturday of arterial sclerotic cardiovascular disease. He was 58.
He was one of the top three or four players of New York-style horn, known for its big sound and bombastic manner, according to longtime friend John Cerminaro, principal horn for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
"Something will have ended with this, because I don't know many players around today who can play this way. It was like the way Reggie Jackson would swing full-out for a home run or the way Rocky Marciano would throw a punch," he said.
Mr. Smith played with the symphony Friday night.
Scott Pappal writes:
[...] before the start of the program, the president of the PSO executive board came onstage to announce the death of Co-Principal hornist Martin Smith. Apparently, his death occured/was discovered about an hour before the start of tonight's concert. I have no other details to offer, but we should pause from our collective busy musical schedules to perhaps offer a prayer for Martin Smith's family and the other horn-players of the PSO. This was a fairly close horn section that just recently performed Schumann k-stuck.
Smith was a religious man who expressed his faith with music:
Some [...] enhance the music of their religious institutions, such as [...] horn player Martin Smith with Kingdom First Ministries in Forest Hills.
Here is a biographical document from 1991 from the PSO archives. Note that Mr. Smith was a member of the orchestra for 25 years:
Co-principal horn Martin Smith joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1980. A native of New Orleans, he began serious study of the horn at age twelve and subsequently won a scholarship to the Juilliard School where he earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. After graduation he played third horn for one season with the Denver Symphony and then became principal horn of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he remained until joining the New York Philharmonic as associate principal horn in 1974. In 1979 Mr. Smith was named the New York Philharmonic's acting principal horn. That same year he performed as soloist in Richard Strauss's First Horn Concerto on the orchestra's subscription series. Mr. Smith has been on the faculties of Brooklyn College, the Manhattan School of Music and Montclair State College. He also has given master classes at the Juilliard School, the Aspen Music Festival and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Mr. Smith has recorded Haydn's First Horn Concerto for Turnabout Records.
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