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JUSTIN SMITH
Justin Smith is a Los Angeles-based guitarist with more than 20 years of experience as a recording artist and live performer. A versatile multi-instrumentalist, he has played electric and acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, balalaika, and various other instruments in recording studios, theatre pits, jazz clubs, and on stages with some of the world’s leading orchestras and performers.
His film and television credits include The Call of the Wild (20th Century Studios), Luca (Pixar), Mozart in the Jungle (Amazon), NASCAR (ESPN), The Voice (NBC), and Toy Box (ABC), with appearances on Mad Men (AMC), Babylon (Paramount), and The Orville (Fox).
In the course of working with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and various house bands, Smith has backed artists including Randy Newman, Jewel, Nikka Costa, Audra McDonald, Monica Mancini, Ledisi, Lea Salonga, Kristen Chenoweth, Danny Elfman, Hugh Jackman, Lizzy McAlpine, and Kermit the Frog.
As a jazz guitarist, Smith has recorded and toured with Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, performed with Chris Walden’s Pacific Jazz Orchestra, and performs regularly with other leading Los Angeles jazz groups and big bands.
Smith’s orchestral work includes collaboration with conductor and composer Michael Tilson Thomas. He performed on Thomas’s Playthings of the Wind with the San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and appears on the released recording. His other orchestral credits include performing on both the recording and live world premiere of Shostakovich’s recently discovered opera Orango with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also worked under the batons of John Williams, John Adams, Chris Rountree, David Newman, Gustavo Dudamel, Bramwell Tovey, and Thomas Wilkins.
Smith has performed in Los Angeles and on national tours with Broadway productions including Hamilton, Wicked, The Book of Mormon, Mary Poppins, Beautiful, Mamma Mia!, and many more.