Mark Russell Smith

Conductor

A conductor leading the Quad City Symphony through a season spanning Berlioz to Chávez.

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In short

Mark Russell Smith appears as conductor for a full season of Masterworks concerts with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra in Iowa, spanning 2026 and 2027. The programs range from core Romantic repertoire like Berlioz and Sibelius to contemporary and American works by Stephenson, Garrop, Chávez, and Abels. Listeners can expect a conductor entrusted with a season-long arc of programming rather than a single guest date.

On the podium

Across this season with the Quad City Symphony, Smith moves between orchestral staples and contemporary or lesser-heard works placed alongside them. Listeners will hear Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, a piece built around a recurring melody representing an obsession, given alongside Beethoven's lyrical Fourth Piano Concerto. Later programs pair Sibelius's brooding First Symphony with Britten's Violin Concerto, and set Schubert's expansive Ninth Symphony against Vivaldi and Piazzolla's contrasting takes on "Autumn." The final two programs bring rarer repertoire into the mix, including Carlos Chávez's Second Symphony and Michael Abels's Cello Concerto alongside Dvořák's folk-inflected Eighth Symphony, and a program built around themes of fate, with Verdi, Brahms, Barber, and Strauss. The range across these concerts, from Viennese overtures to Ellington's "Harlem," suggests a conductor comfortable moving between orchestral traditions and newer American voices.

Written by OrchestraFinder, reviewed September 2026.

Mark Russell Smith

In short

On the podium

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