She then continued her studies in Boston at the New England Conservatory with Dorothy DeLay and Louis Krasner, playing in masterclasses for many others including Josef Gingold, Yehudi Menuhin and Sándor Végh.
Smith was the founding first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet, prizewinners at Evian, Banff and Portsmouth International Competitions and winners of the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music.
The MSO's Chief Conductor Sir Andrew Davis has stated that, of all the performances of Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending he has conducted, Wilma Smith's was "unquestionably the most beautiful".
[1] Smith has enjoyed a longstanding duo and chamber music partnership with New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun.
Smith's partner is Peter Watt, a computer consultant, with whom she has three offspring, Jay, Rosalie and Sophie.