Justin Smith is an active studio and live guitarist in the Los Angeles area. Comfortable in many styles, from 20’s hot jazz to contemporary pop and rock, big bands to symphony orchestras, and the commercial demands of studio playing and broadway shows, Smith is an accomplished reader and an able doubler.
Smith’s studio career includes a mix of projects, including playing credits in film, and television, for clients like ABC, NBC, and Disney, as well as playing for jingles and library music. As a recording artist, Justin has been featured on projects for a variety of artists, recently contributing banjo and mandolin parts for The Titanic Project, and solo and textural guitar work for Paul Starling’s Aimed Arrows. In addition to recording in traditional studios, Justin maintains a busy schedule recording projects from his home studio.
Smith appears regularly in theater pits around Los Angeles. Recent playing credits include Wicked, The Book of Mormon, Chicago, The Addams Family, Legally Blonde, and Shrek. As a touring musician he is a regular with both of the Wicked national tours; he toured for a year with Mary Poppins.
Equally at home in the symphony orchestra, Smith has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He can be heard playing banjo on their recent Deutche Grammophon release of Orango, the lost Shostakovich opera, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.