For Iowa State’s associate professor of music and director of orchestra activities, Kirk Smith, music has taken him around the world and most recently to Dayton, Ohio.

On April 12 and 13 he debuted with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and shared the program with singer/entertainer Maureen McGovern.

Smith has studied at Shenandoah University, the University of Denver, Ball State, The Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and the International Workshop for Conductors in Czechoslovakia. Though he has also performed with orchestras including those in Nashville, Shreveport, Richmond and Taiwan, he speaks highly of the one in Dayton.

“It’s a fantastic orchestra made up of people in their early 30s and some in their 40s. It has a long history,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned it’s one of the better regional orchestras in the country.”

This is the 63rd season for the orchestra and Smith only had one rehearsal to prepare for two shows; usually when he guest conducts he gets four rehearsals.

“Those rehearsals are very intense,” Smith said.

The ability to perform well with only one rehearsal was a quality about the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra that impressed him.

They performed works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leonard Bernstein, George Chadwick and a piece by Des Moines composer Linda Coleman titled, “In Good King Charles’ Golden Days.”

Smith is originally from Baltimore, but was teaching at Georgia State when the orchestra conductor position brought him to the university seven years ago.

“Every time I go out and guest conduct, every program has ISU at the top of my biography,” he said. “People have been supportive of Iowa State. I meet them wherever I go.”

During the seven years he has conducted the Iowa State Symphony Orchestra, he has improved its reputation. Opera singer Simon Estes, who is from Centerville, recently commented that the ISU Symphony Orchestra was one of the finest university orchestras he had performed with. Smith also was awarded the ISU Foundation Teaching Excellence Award for Early Achievement in 1992 for his work with the orchestra.

Smith will be guest conducting the Tri II Music Festival in Dubuque on May 1 and 2. The event is similar to high school All-State, but with only five to six schools, Smith said.