Gabriella Smith

Bay Area native Gabriella Smith is a composer whose work invites listeners to find joy in climate action. Her music comes from a love of play, exploring new instrumental sounds, and creating musical arcs that transport audiences into sonic landscapes inspired by the natural world. An “outright sensation” (Los Angeles Times), her music “exudes inventiveness with a welcoming personality, rousing energy and torrents of joy” (New York Times). Lost Coast, a concerto for cello and orchestra, written for her longtime collaborator Gabriel Cabezas, received its world premiere in May 2023 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. This work joins her organ concerto, Breathing Forests, written for James McVinnie also premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Other current projects include Keep Going, a large-scale work for Kronos Quartet, commissioned in celebration of the group’s 50th anniversary season. In December 2023, Smith’s work Tumblebird Contrails was performed on the Nobel Prize Concert by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Smith grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area playing and writing music, hiking, backpacking, and volunteering on a songbird research project.