[2] Educated at the Grey School in Port Elizabeth (1946–1955), in 1956 Smith was awarded a scholarship to Rhodes University,[2] where he completed his PhD degree.
[2] Smith then returned to South Africa to serve as Director of Music for two years at the Michaelhouse senior school for boys in KwaZulu-Natal province from 1962 to 1964.
He was appointed as Organist and Master of the Choristers at St George's Cathedral, Cape Town in 1964 – the first South African to hold this position, in which he continued for 42 years.
[4] Besides conducting in the United Kingdom, Austria, and Israel, Smith has made several solo recital tours both in America, England and Australia and played in Westminster Abbey and King's College, Cambridge.
[citation needed] In 1989 Archbishop Desmond Tutu awarded Smith with the Order of Simon of Cyrene, the highest honour the Anglican Church of Southern Africa can bestow on a layman.