Clarence
Smith is an instructor of music at Penn Valley and
director of the PVCC Jazz Ensemble. Before he began
teaching full-time at Penn Valley at the start of
the 2003 school year, Smith was the director of the
jazz program at the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing
Arts High School in Kansas City from 1993 – 2003.
During his ten years there, Smith directed a nationally
acclaimed jazz ensemble that performed hundreds of
times each year, including performances at the Kennedy
Center and The Smithsonian Institute in Washington
D.C. and at the Music Educator’s National Conference.
In 2000, Smith was named “Jazz Educator of
the Year” by Downbeat Magazine. In 2003, Smith
was selected as a Music Fellow at Northwestern University’s
School of Music in Evanston, IL
Among
the many artists with who he has appeared as a
drummer/percussionist are Mike Vax, Bill Watrous,
Rich Matteson, Amaadd Aladeen, Carmel Jones, Jim
Widner and in ensembles including the Louis Neal
Big Band, PSF Band and currently, the Kansas City
Wind Symphony, Lee’s Summit
Symphony, and the Joe Athon Jazz Groups.
He
is in demand as a jazz/percussion clinician and
adjudicator. He has provided educational assistance
for the American Jazz Museum and served as an instructor
for their Summer Jazz Institute. In 2001, Smith
was interviewed as a part of the Discovery Channel’s program, “The
Ties That Bind” which chronicled the history
of Kansas City Jazz.
Smith earned
an undergraduate degree in music education from Central
Methodist University, Fayette, Mo. and has a Master
of Education degree, specializing in creative arts
in learning, from Lesley University in Cambridge,
Mass. (Kansas City Campus). He has also studied jazz
extensively at Central Missouri State University
and Northwestern University.
Courses
Clarence
Smith 
