Caitlin Smith (*1983) is a Canadian composer and writer based in Vienna, Austria. She lives with several neuro-immune diseases which have often left her homebound or bed-bound for stretches of months or years, but which were only correctly diagnosed in 2022. Directly addressing both the urgency and complexity of making creative work in the context of decades of medical gaslighting, her practice uses both concrete and abstract sounds to convey sung and spoken material on themes related to feminism, disability, and inequality. She works mainly in opera, music theatre, and song forms.
She completed a Bachelor of Music degree from Humber College in Toronto and is otherwise largely self-taught. Her work as a composer and writer has been awarded numerous grants and prizes, including composition grants from the Stadt Wien, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council. Smith is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.
While at MacDowell, Smith wrote a chamber-jazz opera about Canadian involvement in the recent war in Afghanistan. She has been writing and producing concerts in various styles and formats for her 20-piece orchestra, the Tiny Alligator Large Band, since 2005.
Portrait by Elisabeth Feryn
