robyn.
about
Robyn Smith is the Principal Trombonist of the Chicago Sinfonietta and Adjunct Professor of Trombone at the University of Illinois Chicago. She has most recently performed as a substitute musician with the San Francisco Symphony, Grant Park Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and Boston Pops, and has toured internationally with the Boston Symphony.
Robyn has been featured as a guest artist at the International Trombone Festival, American Trombone Workshop, Brass Beyond Binaries Retreat, Ithaca College, and Georgia State University. Her wide-ranging performance experience includes the Detroit Jazz Festival with the Dee Dee Bridgewater Big Band, performing with Lizzo at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, and national tours with Noah Kahan and Jeezy.
An internationally recognized trombonist, Robyn was the winner of the 2018 International Trombone Association Marsteller Solo Competition and the 2017 ITA Quartet Competition with the quartet Boston Based.
Beyond her performance career, Robyn is a passionate advocate for greater representation and equity in the classical music world. She works to dismantle oppressive structures that contribute to the underrepresentation of Black and Brown musicians in high art forms and mentors young students pursuing careers as professional musicians in various programs across the country.
The classical music industry has settled with the insertion of Black and Brown faces in audiences and on stages as a surface level, almost performative, solution to a systemic issue in classical music. At its core, the culture of this music was not fabricated to meet the needs of a truly diverse industry. Mere acknowledgment of these oppressive structures will not suffice, they must be dismantled.
