John David Smith maintains a busy two-track career as professional musician and university professor. He divides his time between his duties as professor of music at the University of Delaware and on the professional music scene as Principal Horn of Opera Philadelphia, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and the Philly Pops, in addition to frequent appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Recent career highlights have included a solo appearance with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center and a European tour with Orpheus, and he is slated to join the U.D. Wind Ensemble as soloist during their Spring 2015 festival appearances in Taipei, Taiwan.

In previous seasons, Dr. Smith has made numerous appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera orchestra, Orpheus, Orchestra of St. Luke's and New York City Opera, as well as frequent performances of Broadway shows. He has performed on tours of Europe and Asia with Orpheus and New York City Opera, performed as soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall and can be heard on numerous commercial recordings, including the original cast recording of Parade. In addition he performed for two summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, a summer artist residency at the Bowdoin Festival, two summers as faculty brass coordinator at the AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria, and was the Winds and Brass Concerto competition winner at the Aspen Festival in 1992.

From 2000-2003 Dr. Smith served as principal horn of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and was for four years a member of the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. He previously held teaching positions at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, and the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

Dr. Smith holds doctoral and master's degrees from the Juilliard School, the Certificate of Advanced Studies and Brass Teaching Licentiate (LRAM) from the Royal Academy of Music London, the Associate's Diploma from the Royal College of Music London (ARCM), and the Bachelor of Music from Indiana University. His teachers have included Julie Landsman, Philip Farkas, Robert Elworthy, Richard Watkins and Michael Hatfield.