Lee Orean Smith

Lee Orean Smith (August 9, 1874 – April 6, 1942) was an American composer, arranger, music editor, publisher, music teacher, multi-instrumentalist, and conductor. A diverse composer who began his career writing Tin Pan Alley songs and music for the theatre, he later had a prolific output of published band and orchestral works; both arrangements and original pieces. He published music not only under his own name, but also under numerous pseudonyms, including Calvin Grooms, Maurice Lee, Leon Obrero, José Santos, Leopold Lamont, and François Chevalier. Smith composed music for multiple works staged on Broadway, and was the longtime managing editor of the band and orchestra department in the music publishing firm of Leo Feist. At the time of his death he was an editor for Carl Fischer Music.

Life and career

Born in Crawfordsville, Indiana on August 9, 1874, Lee Orean Smith's father was the musical director of a theatre orchestra. In his youth he was trained as a pianist and on multiple string and brass instruments. He played the violin, viola, and cello in his father's orchestra, and multiple instruments in a local brass band.

Smith earned degrees from Wabash College and DePauw University before pursuing further studies in music theory at the Indianapolis Conservatory of Music (founded 1889, closed in the 1960s). Because of his prior training and knowledge from his father, he completed the four year music theory degree in just one year, and was subsequently appointed to the faculty of the conservatory as the chair of both the theory and violin departments, and as an assistant faculty member in the piano department.