Craig Smith is a native of Idaho and studied at Washington State University and New England Conservatory of Music. He is Music Director of the Emmanuel Music Group in Boston and Permanent Guest Conductor of the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie/Opera National in Brussels. He gained renown from his collaborations with director Peter Sellars. Their previous productions include Giulio Cesare at Pepsico Summerfare and Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, The Mikado at the Chicago Lyric Opera, Orlando at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Gershwin's Hang on to Me at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and Brecht/Weill's Das Kleine Mahagonny at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Their Pepsico Summerfare productions of Cost fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Don Giovanni were recently filmed in Vienna with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. They will be televised on Great Performances and throughout Europe and released on video compact disc by Decca Records.

Mr. Smith has also collaborated with Mark Morris in Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in Brussels and in the only American performance of Dido and Aeneas in Boston. Also in Brussels he conducted Vivaldi's Gloria. He recently made his Houston Grand Opera debut conducting Giulio Cesare directed by Nicholas Hytner. Active in both baroque and contemporary music at Emmanuel Church, Mr. Smith has conducted the complete cycle of Bach cantatas in their correct liturgical order, the American premieres of Handel's Atalanta, Max Reger's Serenade for Orchestra, the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winning composer John Harbison's violin concerto and a concert version of his The Winter's Tale. His work at Emmanuel has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning. Future plans for Mr. Smith include Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Giulio Cesare, all in Paris with Peter Sellars, L'Allegro, il Penseroso, ed il Moderato with Mark Morris and Idomeneo in Brussels directed by Peter Sellars.