A graduate of the acclaimed Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts with a First Class BA (Hons) degree in music and an associate of the Victoria College of Music, Craig Smith is an experienced and multi-skilled professional musician based in Preston. His primary instruments are piano and keyboards, and he also plays Latin percussion, bass and rhythm guitar. Working freelance in many musical disciplines, Craig is available for tuition, as a live performer, a studio session musician, a composer/arranger, and a musical director.
We've also got a gallery in the Live Performance section, containing shots from Craig's live work.
Life as a Full-Time Pro
Since graduating, Craig received the aforementioned associateship and has developed a fantastic reputation as a full-time professional musician, with the majority of his work in live performance (either with bands or as a soloist playing classical or pop styles), composition/arranging and tuition.Craig was recently invited to play keyboards and percussion with former A1 star Paul Marazzi. His band, Blue Eyed Soul, hope to be touring in their new line-up within a couple of months. See Paul's website for all the latest news.
In 2011, Craig supported both The Noisettes and Tinchy Stryder with Jessica's Ghost, a well-regarded six-piece folk-rock originals band, popular both on the festivals scene and at private parties for over five years, of whom Craig is a full-time member. He has also worked as the music director for Harriet Wood, a sensational party vocalist from Manchester; all the band members used are session musicians of the highest standard. Craig plays as a session musician, as a non-regular member of other bands and with singer songwriters. Not long ago, one of Craig's studio sessions saw him recording keyboard parts for a Bryan Adams track.
Less regularly these days, Craig also works as a musical director in musical theatre and record producer. Craig continues to play at private functions such as weddings and parties across the North West.
Tuition clients are spread across Lancashire and the North West, even as far away the Yorkshire and Cumbrian Borders. In fact, Craig Smith Music Tuition has been thriving to the extent of being oversubscribed. The sheer demand for Craig's services (and him having too many students with over 100 weekly students!) led, in 2010, to the expansion of the business to create the Craig Smith Music Tuition Agency. There are around ten further teachers on Craig Smith Music's books, all of whom are highly trained and meet Craig's particular standards, and the agency continues to grow.
Craig was recently invited to take part as a studio guest in a BBC feature about the impact of the recession on the North West's professional musicians and live music industry, one of several media appearances made so far in his career.
In May 2008, Craig was approached by bassist Nick Carey to become a founding member of instrumental funk band 110thSTREET.The band quickly morphed into the North West's premier funk-soul band before disbanding to work on other projects in late 2010.
Forthcoming Projects
Craig is currently working on expanding the Tuition Agency side to his business, which will see further expansion back into Blackpool and Fylde, and also into Southport and Merseyside .Craig is pleased to announce that he has just accepted the role of keyboards and programming with a Doves cover band, Sub Doves, which has the support of many of the management personnel behind the original band. Watch this space for details.
Craig has been working for a while on a series of Latin arrangements with a view to putting together a traditional Cuban-style orchestra (with a modern twist) for all those Salsa and Zumba lovers in the North West. This Lancashire Latin band will be at least an eight-piece band, comprising a minimum three percussionists, a three-strong horns section, piano and bass. They'll be playing throughout the North West and beyond, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, so keep your eyes and ears open!
Top Class Training
It was musical direction that in 2004 won Craig a coveted place at LIPA, arguably one of the world's top performing arts institutions, co-founded by Sir Paul McCartney from whom Craig received his degree three years later.During his first year as a musical director on LIPA's Performing Arts Music degree, Craig developed a passion for both popular music performance and production. He also worked on co-founding a theatre production company, staging two musicals before the producers turned their attentions to other projects.
It was during this first year at LIPA that Craig discovered his potential as a composer/arranger, under the guidance of such practitioners as Paul Mitchell-Davidson and Gary Carpenter. He transferred to LIPA's Music degree for his final two years, during which he worked with several acts and bands as musical director or performing on piano, keyboards and percussion; he was commissioned as a composer scoring a Black Box Merseyside musical to celebrate Liverpool's 8th Centenary; and produced records for various singers and bands, with some of this work now available world-wide through iTunes.
The Early Years
Craig was born in Preston in 1986 and took up piano and keyboards aged nine at the local Technics Music Academy, with tutor Chris Cookson. Craig sped to grade 5 piano and music theory within three years and was a winner two years running in the Technics Music Festival, where he discovered sequencing and programming.Ian Carten - then a top figure at the TMA - encouraged Craig to study Music Technology at Preston College, and when Ian became a lecturer there he introduced Craig to musical direction. By now playing beyond grade 8 standard, Craig was offered a job teaching piano and keyboard at A&C Hamilton's Music School (previously Preston TMA) and took his first residency at a high-class city centre restaurant.
To see an informal 'CV' listing Craig's music qualifications, projects on which Craig has worked, ways to find out more about artists with whom Craig has worked, and to find out more about those under whom Craig has trained, please click here.
