Ann Elise Smoot

Biography

Ann Elise Smoot’s international career was launched by her successes in two major competitions: first prize in the American Guild of Organists National young Artists competition in 1998 and third prize in St. Albans 1997. She now performs regularly though out the UK, United States and Europe, with a repertoire that ranges from the 14^th century to the present day. After completing two honours degrees at Yale, where she won several major prizes for scholarship and for organ playing, she travelled to England, where she studied organ and harpsichord at the Royal Academy of Music, and, latterly, with Dame Gillian Weir.

Passionate about bringing organ music to a wider audience and injecting new ideas into the organ world at large, Ann Elise Smoot has been involved in founding several initiatives. These include co-founding the London Organ Summer Course for university age students, which has attracted students from all over the UK, Ireland, and the USA. She is co-founder of the successful London Organ Forum (now in it’s fourth year), a study day which aims to encourage organists to look at their repertoire in a wider musical context.

Ann Elise Smoot is also one of the most sought-after organ teachers in Great Britain, and is in frequent demand for master classes throughout the UK and North America. She is director of the St. Giles Junior Organ Conservatoire, a unique and highly successful programme for teenage organists. She has also taught and performed three times in recent years at the Oundle International Festival and associated summer school for young organists, and has been a frequent and popular tutor on several Royal School of Church Music courses.

A CD from the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, featuring French music and including Ann Elise Smoot’s own transcription of Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, was released by JAV recordings last year.

Current as of August, 2006