Founded by husband and wife team Katie and Tim Smart, Smart Music Education was created to provide high-quality, accessible music education from the Early Years through to 16+. Both hold PGCE teaching qualifications, and are highly experienced professional performers and educators with a broad range of musical expertise across classical, contemporary and community settings.
Who We Are
Katie Smart is a primary school teacher and classically trained bassoonist, with extensive experience across performance, education and community music. She grew up in Manchester and at 16 attended Chetham’s School of Music, before gaining a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. During her studies she also completed an ERASMUS exchange to the Academy of Performing Arts (HAMU) in Prague, and later continued her postgraduate training at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. She subsequently returned to London to begin her professional career.
After a year with Southbank Sinfonia, combining performance with outreach work, Katie became increasingly drawn to music education. Alongside performing with orchestras including the Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Heritage Orchestra - where she met her husband, Tim, while touring with comedian Tim Minchin - she trained with Spitalfields Music as a workshop leader, working across schools and community settings in London.
In 2013, Katie completed her PGCE and worked as a primary school teacher and music coordinator in Hertfordshire, gaining first-hand insight into the impact of high-quality music provision. After welcoming her first child in 2015 - and later two more - she began running successful baby and toddler music classes in her hometown. These experiences highlighted how little live music many children encounter in school, and inspired her to do something about it.
Tim Smart is a highly experienced performer, educator and academic. His performance career includes worldwide touring and recording with iconic UK ska / punk band The Specials, and the hit West End show The Book of Mormon, written by the creators of South Park, as well as with a wide range of artists including Cher, Rag 'n' Bone Man, Jamie Cullum, Paul Weller and Elbow.
He has led music workshops for a diverse range of organisations including the Grand Union Orchestra, Bollywood Brass Band,.Oxford Philomusica, Magdala Opera, the Soul Vaccination Songwriting Project, and the Education Group, and worked in a range of settings, including mainstream schools, community groups, and in settings for students with complex needs.
His teaching career also includes performance coaching, instrumental teaching, practical and theoretical musicianship and teacher training, primarily in HE where is a Senior Lecturer for the University of Northampton.
Tim is also active in research, where his interests are currently focused on the demands of the music profession, notably including the relationship between musical contexts and skills sets, and how these interact in the creation of an enduring and successful career.
Tim holds a BMus (Hons) and LRAM from the Royal Academy of Music, an MA in Music Education from the UCL Institute of Education, a PGCE (FENTO) from the University of Greenwich, and a FHEA from the Higher Education Academy.
