PostClassical Ensemble with James Austin Smith

Under the leadership of Music Director Ángel Gil-Ordóñez, Washington's PostClassical Ensemble (PCE) breathes new life into the orchestral experience through imaginative programming performed by the most talented musicians in the nation's capital.

Founded in 2003 by Angel Gil-Ordóñez and music historian Joseph Horowitz, PCE has been a pioneer in transforming the concert experience through innovative programming and with collaborations across artistic mediums. Our humanities-infused programming tells stories— exploring music in its cultural and historical context, and it often integrates theater, dance, film, and visual art, as well as folk, indigenous, and popular music and instruments.

By flexibly expanding and contracting, our ensemble becomes an adaptable medium for instrumental music, ranging from chamber repertoire to full-orchestra compositions, both old and new.

In 2008, we established American Roots as a core programmatic module to prioritize the story of American music, with special attention to the central contributions of BIPOC composers. We also have a tradition of championing works by composers, such as Silvestre Revueltas, Lou Harrison, Bernard Herrmann, and Willam Dawson, deserving of greater advocacy for their cultural influence and social significance. Other core programmatic areas include Film, Cultural Diplomacy, and Encounters, all of which help enhance and inspire a broader and more relevant musical repertoire.

Praised for his “virtuosic,” “dazzling" and “brilliant” performances (The New York Times) and his “bold, keen sound” (The New Yorker), oboist James Austin Smith performs new and old music across the United States and around the world.  Mr. Smith is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Decoda, co-principal oboist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Artistic and Executive Director of Tertulia, a chamber music series that takes place in restaurants in New York and San Francisco  He is a member of the oboe and chamber music faculties of Stony Brook University and the Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Smith’s festival appearances include Marlboro, Lucerne, Music@Menlo, Spoleto USA, Bowdoin, Bay Chamber Concerts, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Orlando; he has performed with the St. Lawrence, Parker, Rolston and Orion string quartets and recorded for the Nonesuch, Bridge, Mode and Kairos labels.

Mr. Smith received his Master of Music degree in 2008 from the Yale School of Music and graduated in 2005 with Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) and Bachelor of Music degrees from Northwestern University.  He spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Leipzig, Germany at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” and is an alumnus of Ensemble Connect, a collaboration of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute and the New York City Department of Education.  Mr. Smith’s principal teachers are Stephen Taylor, Christian Wetzel, Humbert Lucarelli and Ray Still.