Smith, (Joseph) Leo(pold)

Smith, (Joseph) Leo(pold) , English-born Canadian cellist, teacher, writer on music, and composer; b. Birmingham, Nov. 26, 1881; d. Toronto, April 18, 1952. A child prodigy, he made his debut at the Birmingham Town Hall at age 8. Following instruction from Priestly in Birmingham and Fuchs in Manchester, he studied at the Royal Manchester Coll. of Music and the Univ. of Manchester (Mus.B., 1902). He played in the Hallé Orch. in Manchester and in the Covent Garden orch. in London before emigrating to Canada in 1910. In 1911 he joined the faculty of the Toronto Cons. and served as the cellist in the Cons. Trio and later the Cons. String Quartet (1929–41). From 1932 to 1940 he was first cellist in the Toronto Sym. Orch., a post he also held in the Toronto Phil. In 1927 he joined the faculty of the Univ. of Toronto, where he was a prof. from 1938 to 1950. From 1950 until his death, he was the chief music critic of the Toronto Globe and Mail. In addition to serving as contributing ed. of the Toronto Cons. Quarterly Review (1918–35), he publ, the books Musical Rudiments (Boston, 1920), Music of the 17^th and 18th Centuries (Toronto, 1931), and Elementary Part-Writing (Oakville, Ontario, 1939). Smith utilized Canadian folk tunes in his compositions, although the English character of his music remained predominant. Among his works were orch. pieces, chamber music, piano pieces, many songs, and folk song arrangements.

Bibliography

P. McCarthy, L. S.: A Biographical Sketch (Toronto, 1956).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire