CJ Smyth-Small is a Doctor of Musical Arts student at The Ohio State University, where he studies under the mentorship of Professor Steven Glaser. Originally from Northern Ireland, he specializes in the performance of late-Romantic, twentieth-century, and contemporary repertoire. His work frequently centers on collaboration with living composers, particularly those from historically underrepresented communities.

He is the creator and curator of Composing Queer Identity, a research and commissioning initiative exploring how queer identity informs compositional practice. The project features six newly commissioned works by queer composers, and includes in-depth interviews and analyses of their creative processes. Several of the participating composers were collaborators CJ met during the 2023 Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy, where he worked closely with faculty and peers in an intensive co-creative environment. Composer Deanna Rusnock, a fellow queer musician and former colleague from Arizona State University, also contributed two new works to the project, which will premiere in November 2025. Through this research, Smyth-Small examines themes of nomenclature, storytelling, embodiment, and sonic aesthetics, positioning performance as a form of music-theoretical inquiry. The project advocates for inclusive, identity-centered approaches to analysis, and highlights the value of collaboration as a site of knowledge production within contemporary classical music.

A dynamic performer, CJ is deeply engaged with both solo and ensemble repertoire, with particular expertise in large ensemble contexts. In 2024, he performed Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird with the Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra, and successfully auditioned as a soloist for the Wind Symphony’s 2025 international tour to Japan, where he performed the featured piano solo in Daniel Maslanka’s Symphony No. 7. In the same year, he was named one of the winners of the 2025 DMA Concerto Competition, and will perform Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto with the Ohio State Symphony Orchestra in October 2025 under the direction of Maestro Miriam Burns.

CJ's teaching experience is extensive; he has served as a teaching assistant at both The Ohio State University and Arizona State University, where he taught individual lessons and class piano as the sole instructor for students of varying levels and backgrounds. Before relocating to the United States, CJ taught piano and theory full-time at the Ulster College of Music and Enact Music in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He also worked as an accompanist and répétiteur at Queen’s University Belfast, and led group piano classes at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.