Charles Joseph Smith, born in October 22, 1970, is the son of Joseph Smith (deceased) and Emma Smith and brother of Stanley Smith (deceased). He started playing the piano when he was eight and composing music when he was ten. This came not only when he heard Stanley play the piano earlier, but also when Charles acquired his own musical talent soon afterwards. His piano teachers included James Williams, Sophia Zukerman, Emilio del Rosario, Pawel Checinski, Sharon Rogers, Kenneth Drake, Gustavo Romero and William Heiles. His composition teachers were Herbert Brun, Charlotte Lehnhoff, Don Malone, Heinrich Taube, and Sever Tipei.

He received a BM degree in Piano from Roosevelt University (Chicago) in 1994, cum laude, and also received an MM degree in Piano (1995) and a DMA degree in Piano Performance and Literature (2002) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition, he also earned the Inside Minor in Theory from the University of Illinois in 2000.

His recent accomplishments in both piano and composition came in the years 2005 and 2006.

In March 2005, he performed his contemporary solo piano composition "Smooth Suspense" at the School of Designing a Society House Theater Weekend in Urbana. In June 2005, he appeared in the first paid overseas recital, a salon recital in the French town of St. Martin-de-Londres, with pianists Kimiyo Mochizuki and Christophe Sirodeau, and organized by Pascal Herpin, the president of the Préludes organization. During the recital, he performed the complete Visions Fugitives by Prokofiev, and the complete Rite of Spring arranged by pianist/composer Vladimir Leyetchkiss. In July 2005, he collaborated with professional Latin signer, Yammika Cespedes, in Berlin, Germany, completing a romantic salsa song, False Pride. He made his debut in the John Cage Musicircus at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago on September 2005, doing a combination of performance art and an improvisational piano performance, and in that same month, did a similar performance at the Iron Post in Urbana, IL. In October 2005, he attended his first electro-acoustic composition conference, Electronic Music Midwest, at the Kansas City Kansas Community College, where his original electroacoustic composition, "Synth vs. Synth" was featured. Finally, on November 2005, he volunteered to play the piano part with a chamber ensemble who was featured in "From These, All", in a compostion recital at Ganz Hall featuring Laurie Lee Moses (who is now an alumna of Roosevelt University), conducted by H. Roz Woll.

In February, 2006, Charles participated in the Black History Celebration concert sponsored by the Chicago Music Association, performing the complete Sonata no. 1 by living African-American composer George Walker, and also performed his operatic piano transcription "Non più andrai" from Act II of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro in honor of Mozart's 250th birthday. In addition, in the same month, he collaborated with minister of music, Randall Bradford, at the Commonwealth Community Church's Black History Celebration Choral Concert, where he also performed his original Negro Spiritual medley and did piano accompaniment for Nate Williams, a bassist who was formerly with the African-American singing group, The Ink Spots. In August 2006, he made his debut at the Zhou B. Art Center for the Chicago Composers Forum concert, doing a laptop performance of his original compositions.

Finally, his presentation, "The Sal-Mar and More: The Musical Legacy And Phenomenon of Salvatore Martirano" will be featured in his debut appearance at the SEAMUS (Society of Electroacoustic Musicians) conference in Ames, Iowa in March 2007.

In addition to his piano and compositional accomplishments, he also has an interest in creative writing, especially poetry. He also adores ballroom, Latin, and swing dancing, and his favorite dance is the salsa. He also continues to compose music.