Dr. Scott McBride Smith

Email: scottsmith@iiym.com

Scott McBride Smith is President of the International Institute for Young Musicians, a summer academy that in 2007 drew over 90 young musicians from 28 US states and 6 foreign countries for intense study in the art of performance at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

An internationally recognized authority on piano teaching, Scott McBride Smith is co-author of the widely used college text The Well Tempered Keyboard Teacher. Dr. Smith is Associate Editor of the magazine for early-level piano study Keyboard Companion, and was Contributing Editor for the magazine Piano & Keyboard. His articles have appeared in Piano Guild Notes and The American Music Teacher.

Scott McBride Smith has given workshops for teachers' groups throughout the U.S., in Asia and South America. He has appeared several times on the program of the Music Teachers National Association, and has given workshops for the National Association for Gifted Children. Dr. Smith was the leader for the Independent Music Teacher sessions at the 1999 MTNA Convention in Los Angeles, and panel chair for sessions on Pedagogy Day. He has appeared on the programs of the 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 MTNA Conferences. Dr. Smith was featured on the programs of the 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 World Piano Pedagogy Conferences. He was featured clinician at the 2003 European Piano Teachers Association-UK conference in Winchester, and was Visiting Artist for the Summer Conference of the Victorian Music Teachers Association of Australia in 2005.

Dr. Smith has served as Visiting Professor at the Bela Bartok Conservatory in Lima, Peru; at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts;  in China, at the Sichaun Conservatory of Music and at the Shenzhen Arts School; and in Taiwan, sponsored by the International Piano Teaching Foundation.

Scott McBride Smith is a respected teacher of prize-winning piano students in Irvine, California. His students have been California State Champions in the years 1988, 1990, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2004. Former students have been First Prize winners in the Naftsger Competition, Tchaikovsky Competition and in competitions of the Music Teachers National Association. Amir Khosrowpour, Dr. Smith’s student for 11 years, was the 2001-2002 Steinway National Collegiate Champion while a student of Dr. Jack Winerock at the University of Kansas. His student Jeremy Siskind was the 2002 winner of the ASACAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer award. Students have performed with the San Diego Symphony, the Long Beach, CA Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among others.

Dr. Smith received his M.M. from the University of Kansas and his doctorate from the University of Southern California, where he was co-winner of the Outstanding Graduate in Piano award. He is a Past-President of the Southwest Division of the Music Teachers National Association, and a former member of the MTNA National Board. He is a member of the European Piano Teachers Association. A certified teacher of early childhood music, he is a member of the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association.