Michael Shmith (born 7 July 1949) is an Australian

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and writer. Shmith is the son of

Athol Shmith Louis Athol Shmith (19 August 1914 – 21 October 1990) was an Australian studio portrait and fashion photographer and photography educator in his home city of Melbourne, Australia. He contributed to the promotion of international photography ...

and his wife Patricia "Bambi" ''née'' Tuckwell (they later divorced). He worked at ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' newspaper in Melbourne from 1981 until 1995, when he became communications director for

the Australian Ballet The Australian Ballet (TAB) is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur a ...

. Shmith was then a senior writer for ''The Age'' and its arts editor from 1985 to 1993. From 2010 to 2017 he was the paper's opera critic. He resigned from that position in August 2017 over a disagreement with ''The Age''s arts editor Hannah Francis about the paper's dwindling coverage of the arts. Since then, he writes reviews for the ''

Australian Book Review ''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are " ...

''. He edited the 1999

Ebury Publishing Ebury Publishing is a division of Penguin Random House, and is a publisher of general non-fiction books in the UK. Ebury was founded in 1961 as a division of Nat Mags and was originally located on Ebury Street in London. It was sold to Cent ...

edition of ''The New Pocket Kobbé's Opera Book'' with his stepfather

George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood (7 February 1923 – 11 July 2011), styled The Honourable George Lascelles before 1929 and Viscount Lascelles between 1929 and 1947, was a British classical music administrator and author, and ...

. Shmith's 2019 book, ''Cranlana: The First 100 Years'', described the garden and house of Sidney Myer and Merlyn Myer in Toorak, Melbourne. His biography of Merlyn Myer, ''Merlyn'', was published in 2021.

References

External links

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"Books by Michael Shmith"

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shmith, Michael 1949 births Living people Classical music critics Journalists from Melbourne Opera critics The Age (Melbourne) people