Moira Smiley performing at Celtic Christmas with Seamus Egan Project
Moira Smiley (Moira Gwendolyn Smiley, born 21 May 1976)[1] is an American singer, composer, lyricist and musician born in
New Haven, Vermont. She is a multi-instrumentalist on banjo, accordion, piano, and body percussion.[2] Smiley's music has been influenced by folk styles, shape-note singing, classical song, and jazz.[3] Smiley has performed and collaborated with various artists including
Billy Childs,[4]Solas,
Jayme Stone's The Lomax Project,[5] choral composer
Eric Whitacre,[6]Los Angeles Master Chorale,[7]New World Symphony,[8] and often tours with eclectic
indie-pop group
Tune-Yards.[9]
Early life and education
Smiley grew up in rural
New Haven, Vermont. As a teenager, she began teaching at the Village Harmony Summer Camps. Smiley was among the 9 composers from Village Harmony that were represented on the Endless Light recording in 1996.[10] She entered
Indiana University’sJacobs School of Music in 1994 as a Wells Scholar to study piano performance, and earned her degree in
Early Music Vocal Performance.[7] After college she traveled and studied the
folk music and multi-part harmonies of
Eastern Europe (Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria) as well as the traditional Irish
Sean Nós singing.[7][11]
Career
While at
Indiana University she founded the vocal quartet VIDA, which won Bloomington Voice's Battle of the Bands contest.[12] They went on to perform across the U.S. and Europe as part of the IMG Artists roster.[13] She also began performing and recording with early music ensembles such as Paul Hillier’s
Theater of Voices,
Sinfonye, The
Dufay Collective and
Fretwork Consort of Viols as well as with American composer,
Malcolm Dalglish.[7][14]
In 2005 she released her first solo album Rua. The following year she released Blink, her first album with her vocal group VOCO. In 2013 Smiley and her group VOCO performed "Music for a Three-Layer Brain" for the TEDxCaltech "The Brain" event.[15] In 2018 she began collaborating with the Seamus Egan Project, performing vocals and accordion. She sang "Days of War", her song written with
Séamus Egan for a concert on Front Row Boston.[16] In 2018 she released her second solo album, Unzip the Horizon, which The Bluegrass Situation called "the work of a significant talent finding new possibilities in her voice."[17] In 2018 and 2019, Smiley led an immersive a cappella experience with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the
Walt Disney Concert Hall’s BIG SING California event.[6][18] In February, 2021 she released the vocal album, In Our Voices.[19]
Awards
In 2002, Smiley won the Barbara Thornton Memorial Scholarship for Medieval Music, given by the
Sequentia Ensemble.[7]
In 2007, Smiley (along with fellow composers Ron Bartlett, Charlie Campagna) won the annual Lester Horton Award for "Music for Dance"[20] for a score commissioned by choreographers Regina Klenjoski and Monica Favand for Klenjoski’s The Black Drim, which was subsequently performed by Smiley & VOCO (along with the TRIP Music Ensemble) for the Synergy concert at the
John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, in LA.[21]
^DeLoach, Doug (August 2018). "Moira Smiley Unzip The Horizon". Gramophone. 96 (1164): 97 – via
Gale.
^Mohr-Pietsch, Sara (February 16, 2014).
"Moira Smiley". BBC Radio 3 The Choir: The Choral Interview podcast (Podcast interview).
Archived from the original on November 27, 2021. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
^Mitchell, Cicely (November 17, 2016). "Jazz Picks: Billy Childs with Alicia Olatuja and Moira Smiley at NCSU". The News & Observer. Raleigh, NC – via
NewsBank.
^Goldberg, Brianna (May 7, 2015). "Retracing the steps of a folk pioneer: Toronto musician revisits remarkable field recordings of legendary Alan Lomax". Toronto Star – via
ProQuest.
^
ab"Big Sing California". Los Angeles Master Chorale. July 21, 2018.
Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
^Cooke, Nym (Winter 1999). "The Shapenote Album". American Music. 17 (4). University of Illinois Press: 472.
doi:
10.2307/3052661.
JSTOR3052661 – via
Gale.
^Celsi, Anny (August 15, 2012). "For Moira Smiley, Global Music Journey Transcends Time". Voice of America News / FIND.
^Bambarger, Bradley (May 4, 1996). "Breaking away: Mysteries of Life, Vida, El Nino, Salaam Blossom in Bloomington". Billboard. Vol. 108, no. 18. p. 1 – via
ProQuest.
^Chorale, Los Angeles Master.
"Moira Smiley". lamasterchorale.org.
Archived from the original on 2021-11-28. Retrieved 2021-11-30.
^Gullard, Marie (April 23, 2010). "Strathmore pays homage to Mother Earth with special show". Washington Examiner. Washington, D.C. p. 20 – via
ProQuest.
This article needs additional or more specific
categories. Please
help out by
adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles.(December 2021)