As a pioneer of thought leadership in music and its role in the arts and society, Music Academy of the West has named Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith to its National Advisory Council.
An educator, and former two-term U.S. poet laureate, Smith joins current advisors Marcy Carsey, Jeremy Geffen, Gregg Gleasner, Ara Guzelimian, Mark Newbanks, and Chad Smith on the council.
Smith’s belief in the power of art and education to connect people, tackle pressing issues, and change lives aligns closely with the academy’s commitment to community access and transformative education.
Given her focus on connecting people from disparate backgrounds through poetry — a central theme of her platform as poet laureate — Smith is well-suited to advising Scott Reed, Music Academy president/CEO.
In her new role, Smith will also join other National Advisory Council members in assisting to review applications for the annual Alumni Enterprise Awards, which confer annual grants to support innovation in areas including artistic expression, audience development, education, community engagement, social justice, and technology.
“I’m delighted to bring my perspective as an artist and chair of a university arts center into conversation with the Music Academy of the West,” Smith said. “I believe the arts, which foster clarity, courage, community and empathy, have a special role to play in tending to the collective needs alive in our nation.”
“It’s an honor to welcome Tracy as an official member of the Music Academy family,” Reed said. “Her perspective as a writer and educator who collaborates with musicians will ignite creative thinking.
“She will inspire and challenge our community to connect in meaningful ways, as well as to reach new heights in cross-disciplinary arts.”
Smith’s adaptation of Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy” was premiered as part of Carnegie Hall’s yearlong project All Together: A Global Ode to Joy. Her libretto for Gregory Spears’s opera “Castor and Patience” is set to premiere at Cincinnati Opera in 2022.
Smith’s affiliation with Music Academy of the West dates back to 2015, when the Academy joined forces with Town Hall Seattle to commission composer, cellist, and 2002 alumnus Joshua Roman to set poems from Smith’s “Life on Marsin” a song cycle for vocalist and chamber ensemble.
Featuring performances by soprano Jessica Rivera and faculty artist Conor Hanick, the work was filmed for Second Inversion. Last summer, Smith joined the academy as an innovation speaker at the Music Academy Remote Learning Institute, where she gave a livestreamed talk about the relationship between art and social justice.
Smith served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017-19. Her four books of poetry include “Wade in the Water,” winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; “Life on Mars,” winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; “Duende,” which was awarded the 2006 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets; and “The Body’s Question,” which received won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.
Smith’s memoir “Ordinary Light” was a finalist for the National Book Award.