Horn

Ellen Dinwiddie Smith

horn

A member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1993, Ellen Dinwiddie Smith was named third horn in 2000. She also contributes to Twin Cities musical life as a chamber music series creator, guest soloist, chamber music performer and private instructor. She was featured with horn section colleagues in November 2007 performances of Schumann’s Concertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra, with Gilbert Varga conducting.

Smith developed the Colonial Church Chamber Series, launched in 2006, and organized the Musicians for Tsunami Relief benefit concert, both held at Colonial Church in Edina. She has performed with the Lakes Chamber Music Society in Alexandria, Minnesota, and collaborated with the Dale Warland Singers on their CD Britten, Bernstein, et al., as a soloist in Ahron Harlap’s Bat Yiftach (Jephthah’s Daughter).

She was a featured artist at the 2003 International Horn Society Workshop at Indiana University and has served on the faculty of the Kendall Betts Horn Camp. As a guest soloist, she has appeared with the National Repertory Orchestra, Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, Kenwood Symphony Orchestra and Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra.

Smith is a 1987 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she was a student of Myron Bloom and was a member of the Curtis Wind Quintet, which won the top prize in the Fischoff Chamber Music competition. Prior to studies at Curtis, Smith attended the Juilliard School and the University of Texas at Austin. Her teachers included Wayne Barrington, Greg Hustis and Michael Hatfield. She was named third horn of the Charleston (South Carolina) Symphony Orchestra while still a student at Curtis and joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as co-principal horn. As a chamber musician, she has performed at the Spoleto, Waterloo, Chautauqua, Keystone, Colorado Philharmonic and Aspen summer music festivals, as well as several Sommerfests.

Smith maintains an active teaching studio in the Twin Cities. She and her husband, conductor Mark Russell Smith, have two sons, Alexander and Noah. The four were invited to perform at the Initiatives of Change Conference in Caux, Switzerland in August 2006.