You are currently viewing  Sheet Music      Change department


Alan Smith

Composer Information: Alan Smith

Alan Smith was born in London in 1962 and was spent his childhood in Croydon. He sang with various local choirs and attended the nearby Royal School of Church Music, where he began organ lessons with Michael Fleming at the age of ten. He was appointed as Organist and Choirmaster of a local church at the age of 16, and later became Organ Scholar at Kings' College, London, where he studied from 1981 to 1984. As part of his music degree, he specialized in composition, studying with Nicola LeFanu, David Lumsdaine and George Nicholson.

Following postgraduate training at the London Institute of Education, Alan began his teaching career. After working in various schools, he became Head of Music at Hazelwick School, Crawley in 1990, a post he continues to hold. In the same year, he came to some prominence by winning the RSCM's annual composing competition. His successful entry, Let the Peoples Praise You, became his first published piece and continues to be widely performed. Since then, his choral compositions have won several awards, most recently the Thornesian Prize in 2003 and an honorable mention in the 2004 Vanguard Premieres Competition.
Alan's output is predominantly of choral and vocal music, much of it written for specific choirs or occasions, and his catalogue runs to over 150 works. In the UK, his music is published by Animus, Curiad, Cantiones Press, Escorial Edition, Fagus Music and RSCM, while in America, he is published by Abingdon Press, CanticaNOVA, OUP, Pavane and Roger Dean.

Since 1988, Alan was Director of Music at St Andrew's church in Burgess Hill, West Sussex.  He lived in the nearby village of Newick with his wife and three children.  He lost his battle with Cancer in April 2017 and the world lost an amazing man and musician.

View list of works

Back to list of composers

E-mail: alan@smith3.plus.com

Web-site: www.cantabile-music.com

You can shop online here or
call the shop on 020 8693 9879
10am to 5:30pm Monday to Saturday, we will always answer unless already on the phone!