Composer Sean Smith on the premiere of his new Symphony No. 1

Read about Symphony No. 1 "The Wolf" premiering this Friday, Oct 24 with the Charlotte Civic Orchestra in the Halton Arena at 7:30pm. Get Tickets.

Creative Genesis

Elizabeth: You mentioned that this symphony began as a daydream - a gift to your parents (and by extension, family) - born during a Christmas morning reverie. How did that evolve into an orchestral work?

Sean: It was like answering a calling. The decision just came to me and I accepted it, but I didn’t actually start the project until years later. In fact, at the time, I wasn’t even playing guitar. I was on a bit of a break from music to focus on getting my life together.

Fast forward a few years to November 2021. The birth of my first child was approaching; I was at peak dissatisfaction with work (but had a stable career going); and I urgently wanted to get back into something I was passionate about. I picked up the guitar and shook off years of rust. 

The initial goal was to write a death metal record and rediscover my voice. Death metal is truly unconcerned with being popular, and therefore, I felt like it allowed for the truest and purest musical expression of what I wanted to say. Also, death metal rips.  With a future symphony in the back of my mind, my secondary aim was to generate themes for this symphony from these metal riffs, so it was also strategic.

In 2023, after writing an EP and a double sided single for my Seanaldinho project, I was ready to start work on the symphony.  I can vividly remember the moment I started recording the first few notes (ultimately the primary melody of the 1st movement) and just having a bit of an out of body experience, like “I’m actually doing it!” I only had a general concept in my mind and hammered away at the details like a sculptor starting from a block of marble. I composed the entire thing on my electric guitar in four voices first. Then I went back and arranged everything for a full orchestra.

Title / Symbolism

Elizabeth: The subtitle, “The Wolf”, carries personal and cultural symbolism - from your Italian and Irish heritage to the idea of being both a loner and part of the pack. How did that shape the musical narrative?

Sean: The symphony is really an ode to resilience. It explores the moments along a journey that we are forced to take sometimes. The through-line of the piece is this aggression, loyalty, and resulting willingness to fight that a wolf represents to me. Life is a struggle, there are ups and downs for everyone, and you must be able to adapt. Having a fire inside gives you the power and confidence to handle anything that comes your way - and knowing you have support from the pack is pretty crucial too.

Format / Structure

Elizabeth: At ~26 minutes long, the symphony features a diverse orchestration - woodwinds, brass, percussion (snare, timpani, marimba), harp, and strings. How did you approach balancing your orchestration (especially integrating percussive textures like the marimba and snare) with melodic voice and structural cohesion?

Sean: Strings are the foundation of this work and they are quite agreeable as an instrument and capable of anything. That allowed me to bring in other instruments sparingly to achieve specific textures or effects, without overdoing it. The less I used an instrument like the snare drum, the more impact I felt like it had. It was a lot like cooking sauce. Taste it, add a little more salt, another leaf of basil until it all tastes right together and nothing stands out. 

Style / Inspirations / Philosophy

Elizabeth: You reference Gershwin (“repeat the thought and aspirations of the times”) and Mahler (“tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire”) as guiding influences. Could you speak more about how those ideas influenced your choices - both compositionally and emotionally?

Sean: In the case of Mahler’s quote, it's not just the concept, but even down to the fiery language itself, that resonates with me. The wolf that I explained earlier is the fire, the passion, and that is an essence which can be expressed in infinite ways. For example, it’s possible to write a Baroque music piece in 2025, but as Wassily Kandinsky would say, it would lack spiritual depth. We don’t live in the Baroque period, so it would be an empty shell of style without substance. However, you can tap into the same timeless spirit that a composer did during Baroque times, except you’d express it in a way that is familiar to your ears in 2025. The Gershwin quote further supports that philosophy. Haydn would have never dreamt of a wild glissando on the clarinet opening a piece, but it felt natural to Gershwin in the 1920's, and seems even more natural now as a reference in Wynton Marsalis' Blues Symphony 100 years later.

Elizabeth: Also, You began composing this symphony on electric guitar and even used your doom metal project (Seanaldinho) as a thematic seedbed. Could you elaborate on how specific ideas or motifs migrated from your rock world into the symphonic context?

Sean: I made compositional choices that felt natural and relatable to me as a fan of music in the 21st Century: the general tempo of the work feels right to me; the overall duration of the work feels right to me; and the attitude felt familiar. Beyond those high-level subjects, my motive forms were developed by sounds I like and my natural finger movements on an electric guitar while playing metal. They are inherently modern, and since those are the building blocks which show up in various ways throughout the piece, the whole piece is inherently modern. Structurally, I loosely follow the Sonata-Allegro form, which is classic, but I advance and evolve or repeat the music in a way that gels with our current attention spans.

Can I just say though, my biggest actual inspirations were Charles Ives and Beethoven.

Creative Growth / Future

Elizabeth: You’ve described how creating this piece widened your musical understanding - for example, learning about acoustic resonance and arranging, which in turn enriched your rock‑mixing techniques. How do you envision this cross‑genre learning evolving in future works? What are you most excited to explore next?

Sean: This has just empowered me to switch things up all the time so nothing gets stale and I continue to build this web of disparate connections. I think that really enriches the work, whatever it is you are doing. I am going to begin working on a full-length alternative rock album for my next project. I am very excited because I have a totally new take on how to treat melody. I am also excited to layer in lots of harmonic texture that I would not have otherwise thought to do. I just hope it doesn't lose its edge. Then I might go a bit left field with it and write a screenplay or something, but just imagine all the lessons from music that would translate interestingly into a drama - from concepts like a main character (melody) and supporting characters (harmony) and choosing consonance or dissonance in the relationship; down to 1:1 details like the score.

Premiere

Elizabeth: As the Charlotte Civic Orchestra prepares to premiere your work this fall, is there an emotional or artistic moment in the piece that you’re especially looking forward to hearing performed live?

Sean: The opening notes played by the strings will probably give me chills.

Click here to go see this new symphony by composer Sean Smith on Friday, Oct 24, 7:30pm at Halton Theater in Charlotte, NC!