" Maestro plays on the edge of genius...The term genius is bandied around all too often, but Perth clarinet player Ashley Smith could well lay claim to it."

(The West Australian)

"Incandescent…a masterly, display of skill and insight…as an apologist for contemporary music-making, let alone this concerto, you would search hard to find this young clarinettist's equal." 

(The Age, Melbourne)

 “A stand-out occasion ... For once a talented performer fully identified with the music he was playing; it was impossible to imagine a more committed, sympathetic interpretation”

(The Age, Melbourne)

“The performance was a compendium of musical marvels ... flawlessly fashioned style and technique, the presentation bore the stamp of distinction.”

(The West Australian)

"The evening's eye-opener came in the second half with Ashley Smith's incandescent performance of Magnus Lindberg's 2002 Clarinet Concerto. Smith revelled in the score's intricacies and hefty demands, from high piccolo notes to soft middle-register trills and an improbable bass register, alternately stretching the instrument's compass and capabilities and flooding the hall with a splendid lyricism." (The Age, Melbourne)

"He possesses immense drive and imagination for the role that he might play in Australia’s musical future” (The Australian)