The Smith Center has garnered an impressive roster of accolades since opening including a LEED® Gold certification for is sustainability efforts, a nomination as the “Best New Major Music Venue” in the U.S. by Pollstar, a “Best Cultural Attraction” award by the Southern Nevada Hotel Concierge Association, to name a few.
“It has been a monumental year for us as both an organization and a city,” said Myron Martin, president and CEO of The Smith Center. “The performers that have called The Smith Center their home in Las Vegas truly represent the best-of-the-best from across the world and we’re just getting started. This past year was incredible but what’s to come is even better.”
Combined in all of its venues – the 2,050-seat Reynolds Hall, the Cabaret Jazz, Troesh Studio Theater and the outdoor Donald W. Reynolds Symphony Park – there have been more than 450 performances at The Smith Center from March 2012 to March 2013. Ranging from the world’s leading virtuosos of classical music, jazz pioneers, prestigious dance companies, lecturers and treasured Broadway productions, The Smith Center’s inaugural line up saw more than 420,000 tickets sold.
In addition to its presented programs, The Smith Center has hosted more than 20 performances for its resident companies, the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet Theater.
“People are talking about Las Vegas in a way they never did before,” said Martin. “Musicians and productions want to come here. We’ve become a major player on the international stage in the performing arts world. None of us could have dreamed of what this has become.”
Now entering its second year, the center continues to diversify its lineup of touring productions with acclaimed acts like Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, pianist Lang Lang and Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis in “Rose – A Concert Reading” to name a few. Beginning in August, The Smith Center readies for its next Broadway Las Vegas season kicking off with “Les Miserables.” The 10-show season brings 40 Tony Awards® to Las Vegas and features many timeless classics like “The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess” and “War Horse” as well as the newest Broadway sensations such as the Grammy® and eight-time Tony Award-winning production, “Once,” and the season anchor, “The Book of Mormon,” called “the best musical of this century” by Ben Brantley of The New York Times.
Additionally, the center has hosted more than a dozen prominent concerts for non-profit groups throughout the community including Ribbon of Life benefitting Golden Rainbow, Nathan Adelson Hospice’s “Serenades for Life” and Circus Couture benefitting Children's Specialty Center of Nevada.
Following a successful completion of the Capital Campaign, efforts at the Smith Center now focus on the ongoing support of the Annual Fund to support mission-driven endeavors including filling the gap between ticket revenue and operating costs, providing performing arts-based educational opportunities for our students, bringing the best of entertainment throughout the world to Las Vegas and maintaining low-cost tickets to allow accessibility to all members of our community.
“After so many years, we finally have a beautiful cultural centerpiece to call our own,” said said Terry Jones, vice president of development for the center.. “But we will always need community support to continue what we’ve started and fulfill our promise to the community.”