Jason Smart GRSM, FRCO, ARCM, LRAM, ATCL 

 

Jason Smart studied at the Royal College of Music under Sidney Campbell (organ), Thornton Lofthouse (harpsichord) and Herbert Howells (composition), gaining a first prize for music theory and several diplomas, including the ARCO with the Sawyer Prize. He subsequently became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. 

 

For three years he was the Organ Scholar at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and for part of that time acted as the assistant organist. There he took part in several state occasions, including the funeral of the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, and conducted the choir in the presence of the Queen and Royal Family at a Garter Day service televised by the BBC. 

 

Over the years he has played in a number of cathedrals as an accompanist or recitalist and for many years was a regular guest organist to the adult voluntary choir of Rochester Cathedral, accompanying them both at services in the cathedral and on several concert tours in the USA and Germany. 

 

In addition to playing the organ, Jason is also a music historian, specialising in pre-Reformation Tudor Church Music. He was one of the editors for Oxford University Press’s Tudor Church Music sheet music series and has also had editions published elsewhere. In 1992 the Music Publishers’ Association of the U.S. and the American Choral Directors’ Association granted him a Don Malin Memorial Award for excellence of research and editing.