George Smith

George Smith is a composer and orchestrator based in both Wellington and Queenstown, New Zealand. George has a Bachelors Degree in Music majoring in Composition, as well as a Masters of Fine Arts (Creative Practice) in Music from Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand School of Music - Te Kōki) which he completed at the beginning of 2020. Whilst studying at the New Zealand School of Music, George studied under John Psathas, Thomas Voyce, Kenneth Young, Michael Norris, and David Long.

George has had pieces performed by the New Zealand String Quartet, Orchestra Wellington, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and worked with ensembles like Stroma for his short film scores. In 2022, George’s work ‘Short Work For Orchestra’ was selected to be workshopped for the ‘NZSO Todd Young Composers Award’. Also, in 2017 George won the NZ Harp Duo’s Composition Competition.

George has had extensive experience in the international film and television scene in recent years. Most recently he has worked with film composer Chad Cannon (composer of Oscar winning documentary ‘American Factory’) and legendary Studio Ghibli film composer Joe Hisaishi (Composer of ‘Spirited Away’ and ‘Princess Mononoke’) to orchestrate their upcoming score for a 3D animated film. George also previously worked with them both to prepare music for Joe Hisaishi’s July 2022 World Dream Orchestra tour.

George has also worked with composer and orchestrator Philip Klein, assisting him with his orchestration work on the third season of Disney Star Wars show ‘The Mandalorian’, as well as Grammy award winning and Academy award nominated composer James Newton Howard’s score for the Netflix show ‘All The Light We Cannot See’.

George has also worked with New Zealand composers. This includes interning for Emmy Award winning music editor and composer Stephen Gallagher in 2019. He has also worked with composers Riki Gooch and David Long, including as a music editor on ‘Tupaia’s Endeavour’ and as a recording session assistant on the BBC series ‘The Luminaries’.

George aside from composing instrumental music, also composes electronic and ambient music, and lives at home with his cat Scooter.