Paul Smith

Paul is a composer and researcher based in Sydney who specialises in writing opera and music for the toy piano. He holds a Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University and is the co-artistic director of Blush Opera. Paul has collaborated internationally and his music and operas have premiered in Singapore, the UK, Italy, the USA, and Armenia, in addition to Australian festivals and concert performances. In 2021, his largest operatic work, Chop Chef, a collaboration with writer and satirist Julie Koh which explores reality TV food competitions, will be premiered in Parramatta at Riverside Theatre. In 2018, Paul was an artist in residence with the Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory in Yerevan, Armenia, where he worked on three new pieces for toy piano including an experimental chamber opera which he premiered as a keynote performer at the Music as Play Festival in Italy in 2019. He has collaborated with Italian toy piano specialist Antonietta Loffredo many times and she has recorded his keyboard works with the Australian label, Wirripang, as well as performing his music in Italy. Paul was also a contributing writer to the ABC and triple j digital series, What is Music?