[2][4] From 1926 to 1930, Cyril Smith studied with Herbert Fryer (a student of Tobias Matthay and Ferruccio Busoni) at the Royal College of Music, winning medals and prizes[2] including the Daily Express piano contest in 1928 and made his concert début in Birmingham in 1929.

During the Second World War Cyril Smith performed concerts for ENSA but in 1941 he and his wife began performing together as a piano duo at the Proms,[10][11] and made many international concert tours for ENSA and the British Council In 1945, they toured the Far East,[2] where the hazards to contend with included small animals lodged in pianos and out-of-tune instruments.

Malcolm Arnold, Sir Arthur Bliss, Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams also wrote music for the duo.

[4][16] In 1956, while in the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine at the start of a concert tour of the Soviet Union he experienced thrombosis and had a stroke that paralysed his left arm.

[2] Among those who studied piano with him are: Ray Alston,[22] John Barstow,[23] Clifford Benson,[24][25] Philip R Buttall,[26] Maureen Challinor,[27] June Clark,[28] Margaret Fingerhut,[29] Patrick Flynn,[30] Joan Havill,[31][32] David Helfgott,[33] Peter Hill,[34] Antony Hopkins,[35] Niel Immelman,[36] Rae de Lisle,[37] Barry Morgan,[32] Thalia Myers,[38][39] Siva Oke,[40] Aydin Önaç,[41] Jennifer Pearce,[42] June Pepin,[43] Joan Ryall,[44] Stephen Savage,[45] Kimberly Schmidt,[46] Jo Spanjer,[47] Kathron Sturrock,[48] Sharon Joy Vogan,[49] David Ward,[50] Fanny Waterman,[51] Gillian Weir,[52] Kenneth Weir,[53] Frank Wibaut,[54] Simon Young,[55] and David Waldmann.