Kent Smith

Kent Smith, a native of Parkersburg, WV, is known for a varied musical career. Smith has appeared in a wide variety of roles in opera, operetta, musical theatre, and on the concert stage with companies such as Opera Festival of New Jersey, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Cleveland Opera on Tour, Opera at Florham, American Music Theatre Festival, Natchez Opera Festival, The National Opera Company, New York City Opera, Stamford Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, North Carolina Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Other performances in recital and concert include the Caramoor Music Festival, Westchester Oratorio Society, Thomas Tallis Scholars, Coro de Camera, and Musica Antiqua of Santa Fe. He was part of the acclaimed national tour of the Tony Award Winning Play, Master Class, as well as performing the same play with TheatreWorks in the Bay Area, both of which he was Musical Director as well. Mr. Smith’s vocal master classes are presented throughout the country and the world, and he maintains his private vocal studio in New York City. Mr. Smith runs the voice department at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where is Associate Professor of Voice. In 2012 he presented and produced the first ever student opera, “The Medium” at SUNY New Paltz. Mr. Smith was on the faculty of University at Buffalo for 4 years, where he was also Director of the Opera Studio and has also taught in Italy at Centro Studi Italiani and at Centro Studi Lirica as well as in Pennsylvania at the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary. In 2011 he began his own program in Italy called Lingua e Lirica Italiana, where he was the artistic director.2016 performances have included appearances with the Innisfree PianoTrio, Newburgh Chamber Music Festival, as well as the Husdson Valley BachFest. In 2017 Mr. Smith was also seen at the Gala Opening Night for Opera Niagara in Canada as Marcello in Puccini’s La Boheme as well as performing at the famous Casa Verdi in Milan, Italy. This November he will be portraying the role of composer Virgil Thomson in the opera "The Mother of Us All" at the historic Hudson Opera House. Mr Smith received his artists’ diploma in vocal performance from the Curtis Institute of Music after having received his BFA in French horn performance from Carnegie-Mellon University. He was awarded the Masters in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. Current students of Mr. Smith have been accepted to some of the most prestigious conservatories (Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Columbia University, New York University). Singers from Mr Smith’s studio have also competed and won at the state, regional and national levels for the Young Artist Competition of MTNA (Music Teachers National Association).