Carl B. Schmidt received his undergraduate degree with honors from Stanford University and his MM and PhD degrees from Harvard University.  His principal teachers were Putnam Aldrich, John Ward, and Nino Pirrotta.  He was also a conducting and harmony student of Nadia Boulanger (Fontainebleau, France).  He has written extensively on seventeenth-century Italian and French opera and ballet, on members of the French Groupe des Six, and is currently involved in work on a 20th century American composer.  His research and reviews have been published in numerous American and foreign journals including Journal of the American Musicological Society, Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, Music Library Association Notes, Harvard Library Bulletin, Journal of Musicology, Penn Sounds, Dix-septième siècle, "Recherches” sur la Musique française classique, and Current Musicology.  His most recent articles include “Francis Poulenc and Robert Shaw: A Remarkble Symbiotic Relationship, The Musical Quarterly (Summer 2010) and “Give what you have”—John Milton Ward as Educator: A Personal Recollection,” in John Ward and His Magnificent Collection, ed. Gordon Hollis (Beverly Hills: Golden Legend, Inc., 2010).   He was awarded the Music Library Association 1988 Prize for the Best Article-Length Bibliography or Article on Music Librarianship.

Schmidt’s most recent books include: The Story of Randall Thompson’s Alleluia Revisited: A Facsimile Edition with Commentary (Boston: ECS Publishing, 2010) and Écrits sur la musique de Georges Auric/Writings on Music by Georges Auric, 4 vols. (Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2009).  He has also written Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc (New York: Pendragon Press, 2001); The Music of Francis Poulenc (1899-1963): A Catalogue (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995); The Livrets of Jean-Baptiste-Lully’s Tragédies-lyriques: A Catalogue Raisonné (New York: Performer’s Editions, 1995); and An Index to Jean Laurent Le Cerf de La Viéville’s Comparaison de la Musique Italienne et de la Musique Françoise (Geneva, Switzerland: Éditions Minkoff, 1993).  He has contributed articles to several editions of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, to Festschriften for Nino Pirrotta and James R. Anthony, and to volumes on Lully (Cambridge Univ. Press, Georg Olms, and Laaber Verlag), Poulenc (Ashgate), and Cesti (Quaderni della Rivista Italiana di Musicologia).  His annotated bibliography of Francis Poulenc, commissioned by the Oxford University Press, has been published in their new on-line bibliographies series in 2011.

His major music editions include one of Poulenc’s earliest extant works, Trois pastorales pour piano (Paris: Heugel (Alphonse Leduc), 2004), which was given its modern-day American premier at Towson University by Sandrine Erdely-Sayo in 1994 and its European premier by Noël Lee in Paris during December 2003; Francis Poulenc’s Suite Française arranged by Poulenc for Cello and Piano (Paris: Éditions Durand, 1997), recorded by Cecylia Barczyk and Reynaldo Reyes; Poulenc’s Quatre Poëmes de Max Jacob (Paris: Éditions Salabert, 1997), recorded by François Le Roux and Charles Dutoit; co-editor of Quare fremuerunt gentes in Jean-Baptiste Lully: The Collected Works, vol. IV/5 - Grand Motets (New York: The Broude Trust for Musicological Publications, 1996); Poulenc’s, Sonate pour Flûte et Piano (London: Chester Music, 1995), first recorded by Susan Milan and subsequently by numerous others; two motets by Henry Du Mont (Broude Brothers); and Antonio Cesti, Il Pomo d’oro (Music for Acts III and V from Modena, Biblioteca Estense Ms. Mus. E. 120.  Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era, 42 (Madison: A-R Editions, Inc., 1982), professionally performed in Vienna, summer, 1989.

Schmidt continues working on the music of Georges Auric.  A future Auric publication includes: The Music of Georges Auric (1899-1983): A Documented Catalogue.  In the field of American studies, he and his wife Elizabeth have embarked on a broad project involving the music of the distinguished American composer Randall Thompson.  A book entitled The Music of Randall Thompson (1899-1984): A Documented Catalogue is nearing completion.  Future projects include the writing of Thompson’s biography and the preface for an edition of his unpublished Wedding Music.

During the 2008-2009 academic year Schmidt delivered two papers at conferences: 1) “The Unknown Randall Thompson: ‘Honkeytonk Tunesmith, Broadway Ivory-Tickler’” at the national meetings of the American Musicological Society in Nashville (TN) in November 2008 and 2) “Georges Auric’s Contribution to Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes” for the April 2009 Harvard University Symposium “Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: Twenty Years that Changed the Face of Art.”

Schmidt has directed a college men’s glee club on a seven-week/eight-country European tour, narrated Poulenc’s L’Histoire de Babar le petit elephant, in various concerts with Annette Di Medio, Reynaldo Reyes, and Sandrine Erdeley-Sayo, and given lecture/recitals including several with mezzo-soprano Leneida Crawford and pianist Susan Ricci.

A former Chairperson of the Towson University Music Department, Schmidt teaches general survey courses for non-majors and upper-division music history classes for music majors including specialty courses on Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the Arts in Paris, Igor Stravinsky, Symphonic Literature, Vocal Literature, and the Music of the Romantic Period.  His new Freshman Seminar on “The Arts in Paris: 1900-1930: Music, Dance, and the Visual Arts” will be given for the first time in fall 2011.  He lectures widely in the Baltimore-Washington area, serves on the Board of Directors of The Handel Choir of Baltimore, and has been the recipient of significant grants from various universities, the American Council of Learned Societies, The National Endowment for the Humanities, Music and Letters, and of a Harvard University Houghton Library Visiting Fellowship.  Before coming to Towson in 1994, Schmidt taught at Wabash College (IN), Bryn Mawr College (PA), and The University of the Arts (PA) where he founded the graduate program in music.  He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson (AZ).

On 5 July 2010 Schmidt delivered the opening lecture on Randall Thompson’s Alleluia at Tanglewood (MA), summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Tanglewood Music Center by Serge Koussevitzky in 1940.  During the 2010-11 concert season Schmidt gave pre-concert lectures for two concerts in the Shriver Hall Concert Series at The Johns Hopkins University (14 November 2010 for cellist Gautier Capuchon and pianist Gabriela Montero and 6 March 2011 for pianist André Watts), for the 1 May 2011 Washington Bach Consort performance at the National Presbyterian Church in Washington DC, and for the 15 May 2011 performance by The Handel Choir of Baltimore of Mozart’s Requiem and Bach’s Cantata No. 106.  In the course of 2010-11 he has nearly completed a book entitled The Handel Choir of Baltimore (1935-2011): A History.

Office: CA 2093
Phone: 410-704-2830
Email: cschmidt@towson.edu