Roy Cornelius Smith
Encyclopedia
Roy Cornelius Smith is an American operatic tenor
, from Big Stone Gap, Virginia
.
Smith performed leading tenor roles at many opera houses and festivals including the Salzburg Festival
, Spoleto Festival
, Metropolitan Opera
, Vienna Volksoper
, Deutsche Oper Berlin
, New York City Opera
, and Lyric Opera of Chicago
. He has also performed as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
, New York Philharmonic
, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice, Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal and with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Smith has a Doctor of Musical Arts
degree from the American Conservatory of Music
, and Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Tennessee
.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, from Big Stone Gap, Virginia
Big Stone Gap, Virginia
Big Stone Gap is a town in Wise County, Virginia, United States. The population was 5,643 at the 2010 census.-History:The community was formerly known as "Meneral City" and "Three Forks." The "Big Stone Gap" refers to the valley which has been created on the Appalachia Straight, located between...
.
Smith performed leading tenor roles at many opera houses and festivals including the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
, Spoleto Festival
Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy...
, Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, Vienna Volksoper
Vienna Volksoper
The Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....
, Deutsche Oper Berlin
Deutsche Oper Berlin
The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is also home to the Berlin State Ballet.-History:...
, New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
, and Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
. He has also performed as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
, New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice, Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal and with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Smith has a Doctor of Musical Arts
Doctor of Musical Arts
The Doctor of Musical Arts degree is a doctoral academic degree in music. The D.M.A. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy. The D.M.A...
degree from the American Conservatory of Music
American Conservatory of Music
The American Conservatory of Music was a major American school of music founded in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt . The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It was located in Chicago until 1991 when its Board of Trustees — chaired by Frederic Wilbur Hickman...
, and Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
.
Awards and honors
- 1990 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council AuditionsMetropolitan Opera National Council AuditionsThe Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is an annual singing competition sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera. Established in 1954, its purpose is to discover, assist, promote, and develop young opera singers. The competition is held in four stages: Districts, Regional, Semi-Final, and...
- 1997 Licia Albanese/Puccini International Voice Competition
- The Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Award
Sources
- Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/gisrch2k.r?Term=Smith,%20Roy%20Cornelius%20%5BTenor%5D&limit=5000&vsrchtype=no&xBranch=ALL&xmtype=&Start=&End=&theterm=Smi%74h,%20%52o%79%20Co%72n%65li%75s%20%5B%54%65no%72%5D&srt=&x=0&xHome=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/bibpro.htm&xHomePath=http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/Smith, Roy Cornelius (Tenor)], performance record on the MetOpera Database - Oestreich, James R., A Don Giovanni Close to the Edge, Like Everyone Else, New York Times, 7 June 2005
- Silverman, Mike, New York City Opera Revives 'Esther' and Itself, ABC NewsABC NewsABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
/Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, 8 November 2009 - Tenors.net, Biography: Roy Cornelius Smith
- von Rhein, John, 'Elektra' electrifies – First nighters cheer splendor of Lyric cast, Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, 1 October 1992, p. 28 (subscription access)