Tim Smith earned an M.A. in music history at Occidental College, Los Angeles, and a B.A. in music history at Eisenhower College, Seneca Falls, N.Y. He began his journalistic career in his native District of Columbia as a freelance classical music critic for the Washington Star and Washington Post. After nearly two decades as a national and regional award-winning classical music critic at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, he was classical music critic for more than 18 years at the Baltimore Sun. During the last half of that tenure, he also served as theater critic and, in the final months before getting, um, fed up, as restaurant critic (The Year of Eating Dangerously). A continual de-emphasis on arts coverage at the paper prompted him to depart in a suitable huff in November 2018. He lives in Baltimore County with his husband, two cats and a whole lot of cool stuff.