RIP Gregg Smith

One of the great promoters of twentieth-century music has died. Not so much an underdog, but a sort of invisible support mechanism. Never really a star, but his name on a record was a seal of approval, an invitation to pick something off the shelf at the library, or out of the record bin at the thrift store, to trust your curiosity.

“We do special music, chamber operas, theater pieces, folk songs and everything else that can serve to expand the whole range of vocal music [...] My great pride is that we don’t belong to any clique. We’ve sung many different kinds of music. You name it — serial, atonal, Americana, Minimalist — we’ve sung it.”