Composer and pianist Jacob Alan Smith (b. 2002) explores the expressive potential of sound through inspired melodies and loop-based variation, combining elements of his background in both old and new musics to create work that acknowledges the past, but looks toward the future. His pieces are informed by both his classical piano background, as well as his contemporary compositional influences from many worlds, including blues, contemporary jazz, progressive rock, funk, EDM, VGM, ragtime, and folk. His work tends to incorporate both rigidly-structured traditional notation and improvisational elements, leading to distinct performances that vary in interpretation by performer, while still maintaining a core set of elements that give each piece its identity. These pieces tend to ground themselves in a core set of melodic motifs, and the work evolves through reharmonization, metric modulation, and the contrapuntal blending of these motifs into a lively, inspired, ever-changing whole. His primary interests lie in the fusion of the old and the new within the world of contemporary music, and has a desire to see classical music evolve beyond its traditionally stiff and unapproachable nature into a flourishing new sound that embraces the diversity of the modern musical world, while still acknowledging and examining its roots.

He holds a BM in Music Composition and Music Technology from Virginia Tech, having studied under composers Charles Nichols, Ivica Ico Bukvic, and Tiffany M. Skidmore, and is currently working towards a MM in Music Composition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, studying under composers Mark Engebretson and Alejandro Rutty. He has also presented and premiered work on an international scale, including (but not limited to) the U.S., the U.K., China, South Korea, Australia, and several countries in Europe and South America.

As a member of the composer duo and collective compositional entity Ivory Out of Time, alongside fellow composer William Rhodes (BM, Virginia Tech; MM, New York University), he has written and performed new works for chamber ensembles, inspired by the spirit of progressive rock and infused with a signature sense of ironic humor that sets them apart. He believes in the concepts of collaborative and crowdsourced composition, and that abolishing the idea of the “sole composer” can lead to a more diverse, dynamic, and inspired approach to creating music. Through Ivory Out of Time, the duo, along with whatever other collaborators they may be working with, create a sort of compositional hive mind through their draft process, fusing together each composer’s individual styles into a work created by multiple minds, from multiple perspectives at once. As a representation of this, they ask to be credited as Ivory Out of Time instead of as individuals in the context of the group, as to not prioritize or discount any particular member’s contributions.