C. Curtis-Smith

Curtis Curtis-Smith (September 9, 1941, Walla Walla, Washington – October 10, 2014, Kalamazoo Michigan), better known as C. Curtis-Smith or C.C. Smith, was a modernist American composer and pianist. Education Curtis-Smith was born in Walla Walla, Washington, and received a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College, where he studied with John Ringgold and David Burge. He received a Master of Music degree in piano at Northwestern University where he studied with Alan Stout and Guy Mombaerts. He pursued further studies at the University of Illinois with Kenneth Gaburo, the Tanglewood Music Center with Bruno Maderna, and in master classes at the Blossom Music Festival with Pierre Boulez. Curtis-Smith was an adjunct professor then full-time faculty at Western Michigan University from 1965-2012. Career In 1972, he pioneered the technique of bowing the piano. Pianist David Burge wrote about the technique, saying “Loose bows made of strands of fishline are woven throughout the piano strings at various places in the instrument … to give the pianist the possibility of crescendo and diminuendo on a single note or group of notes.” Curtis-Smith performed at Carnegie Hall in 1968, and had several