JOEL SMIRNOFF

USA

Violinist, conductor and pedagogue Joel Smirnoff, a native of New York City, served as President of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 2008 until 2016.  As violinist, Mr. Smirnoff performed on four continents over 23 years as member of the Juilliard String Quartet, joining as second violin in 1986 and replacing the legendary Robert Mann as first violin in 1997. In addition to his Grammy-nominated SONY disks with the Juilliard Quartet, Mr. Smirnoff also has an extensive catalog of solo recordings, including the world premiere recordings of numerous contemporary works by composers as diverse as Louis Gruenberg and Joan Tower.

Mr. Smirnoff was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for six years in the 1980’s and Head of String Studies at the Tanglewood Music Center during the late 1990’s, where he was also conducting assistant to Maestro Seiji Ozawa. 

Presented by Maestro Ozawa at the Bernstein Memorial Concert of 1998 at Tanglewood, Mr. Smirnoff made his official American conducting debut with the San Francisco Symphony in July, 2000, conducting an all-Tchaikovsky program. Engagements quickly followed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Chicago Philharmonic, the New World Symphony and others. Mr. Smirnoff has appeared as a conductor with many orchestras within the United States, Europe and Asia, with an amazingly wide repertoire, and, notably, a remarkable recording of Elliott Carter’s Piano Concerto with the Basel Sinfonietta and Charles Rosen as pianist. 

Mr. Smirnoff received the Lifetime Grammy Award in 2011 for his many recordings with the Juilliard String Quartet and was honored the same year with the Alumni Professional Achievement Award from the University of Chicago, his Alma Mater. 

As music educator, Mr. Smirnoff has served on the chamber music faculty of The Juilliard School since 1986 and on the violin faculty since 1989, serving as Chair from 1992 until 2008. A longtime faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Festival, Mr. Smirnoff assisted Maestro Seiji Ozawa and served as Head of String Studies from 1995-2000. Mr. Smirnoff has served on the juries of the Naumburg, Seoul, Bartok, Indianapolis and Sendai Violin Competitions.

Mr. Smirnoff also plays jazz and appeared over many years as improvising violinist with the great jazz singer Tony Bennett in concert and on TV. His improvised solo on “Fly Me to the Moon” can be seen on “Tony Bennett Live by Request” and two improvised jazz solos can be heard on the Grammy award-winning CD “Tony Bennett Sings Ellington Hot and Cool”. He has also been guest soloist with Gunther Schuller and the American Jazz Orchestra, and with the Billy Taylor Trio.