Paul Smith is an innovative and creative performer, composer, conductor, an inspirational educator and an empowering public speaker. As co-founder of Grammy-nominated VOCES8, author of The VOCES8 Method and CEO of the VOCES8 Foundation, his annual programme sees him working globally in prestigious concert venues, festivals, schools, universities and wider communities.
Paul is passionate about the impact singing and the arts can have in the widest possible context – from academic improvement to social skills and building more cohesive communities. He uses that passion to design and deliver unique, inclusive and uplifting performance projects.
Collaboration is a key word to describe Paul’s approach to music making, and in recent collaborations, he has been thrilled to work with an eclectic arrange of artists including Paul Simon, Eric Whitacre, percussionist/composer Teena Lyle, stage designer Julia Hansen (Glyndebourne, Santa Fe Opera) Christophe Duquense (Dune 2), opera director Anisha Bondy (Komische Oper Berlin) and loop station world champion, MandoBeatbox.
For more than 20 years Paul has been the CEO of the VOCES8 Foundation, and he dedicates much of his time to growing the global impact of the Foundations in the UK, US and France with his team, and alongside his brother, Barnaby, with whom he began VOCES8.
Season highlights for 2025-26 include continuing his work with the Royal Academy of Music in London; leading the Sing’In massed choir projects across France and Germany, work with the Philharmonies in Paris, Luxembourg and Berlin; with Opera Avignon, with Les Éléments in Toulouse and Festival de la Vézère. There are performances of works from his new album titled ‘Revolutions’ from New York and London to Hong Kong, Malaysia, and in South America; various performances in France, Germany and Austria of his community projects with MandoBeatbox and Daniela Mars; programmes with VOCES8, Apollo5 and Lyyra (the new upper voice ensemble from the VOCES8 Foundation) across the US, and concerts and workshops in Europe, the USA, Asia and South America.
為深化學生的學習體驗，大會特別為參與「比賽暨大師班」的同學設計了「 VOCES8 Method, written by Paul, is published by Edition Peters in four languages, and is now being used in thousands of schools in numerous countries around the world. The Method is designed to link specific music-making activities with academic improvement in numeracy, literacy and linguistics.
As a composer, Paul writes regularly for vocal groups, choirs, orchestras and soloists. Publications in 2025-26 included Magnificat, Love Always Within and Wayfaring Stranger. Other recently published commissions include his setting of the Nunc Dimittis 和 Edo Lullaby on the VOCES8 Singles range. Paul’s music is published by VOCES8 Publishing, ECS/Morningstar and Edition Peters. Publications and commissions for 2025-26 include a new album of his work for VOCES8, which is released as part of the 20th Anniversary celebration for the group, and will include a feature performance at the Barbican in 2025.
As a composer and pianist, Paul works with flutist and composer, Daniela Mars in their duo, MARS SMITH. The duo continues to perform and work with communities globally, also touring their cinematic album ‘Faroe Islands: Echoes on the Wind’. This season sees them performing in the UK, US, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia. They will also begin releasing new singles from their work on a new album inspired by Lençóis Maranhenses in Brazil, and their music can regularly be heard on BBC Radio 3.
Since its inception in 2007 the VOCES8 Foundation has worked with 500,000 young people. Projects have included massed singing performances at the Royal Opera House (London), Cité de la Musique (Paris) and the Philharmonie in Luxembourg; and with “singing city” projects in cities such as Torino, Wroclaw, Lyon, Hannover, Houston, Albuquerque, Dallas/Fort Worth, Bermuda, Nairobi, Lagos, Dubai, Tokyo, and Taipei. Working in partnership with the Diocese of London, Paul has spearheaded the creation of a home for the VOCES8 Foundation at the VOCES8 Centre, a centre of excellence in vocal music performance, education and outreach in the heart of the City of London.
As an educator and public speaker, Paul has given speeches and created sessions on music and leadership, teamwork, music and creativity, health and wellbeing, and The VOCES8 Method. He presented a TEDx talk entitled ‘How can we use music to help us learn?’. Engagements at international conferences include the ACDA National conventions; Europa Cantat; the London Music Education Expo; Chor.com; the World Symposium of Singing at the Liszt Music Academy; the World Symposium of Choral Music and at the Royal College of Music in London.
Paul has been singing for more than 30 years, first as a boy chorister with the choir of Westminster Abbey, and, since 2005 with VOCES8. As a recording artist with Decca Classics, Paul has featured on best-selling, chart-topping albums and won a host of international awards. He was an Executive Producer on VOCES8’s Grammy-nominated album ‘The Lost Birds’. His first album as a solo artist and composer, ‘Reflections’, was released in 2019 and entered the top 10 in the UK Specialist Classical Charts. His 2022 album, ‘Renewal?’ has also received wide critical acclaim. ‘Revolutions’ was released with VOCES8 Records and Decca in 2025.
