BIOGRAPHY
California-born mezzo soprano Devony Smith is currently based in Frankfurt am Main, and is known for her command of a wide variety of operatic and concert repertoire. This last season held a variety of role debuts for Devony: In Fall 2021, she sang the role of the Rooster in a new orchestral arrangement of The Cunning Little Vixen conducted by Fabrice Bollon, which will premiere on the SWR Stuttgart radio and will be released on CD under the Naxos label.
Spring 2022, Devony sang her debut as Sesto in Clemenza di Tito with Bronx Opera, Maddalena in Rigoletto with Boheme Jersey Opera, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas at Teatro Commuale di Giuseppe Manini di Narni. In concert, Devony premiered both “Little River Songs” by Grammy-award winning composer Jennifer Higdon with Lyric Fest Philadelphia and “finish what i haven't started” by Eve Beglarian with Brooklyn Art Song Society. This upcoming season, Devony will sing the title role in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Opera Modesto. In December, Devony will be featured in a concert of Hanns Eisler’s “Hollywooder Liederbuch” with Brooklyn Art Song Society. Devony also anticipates singing the role of the Lover in Kate Soper`s new opera The Romance of the Rose.
"'SHAMES TRIPLE ARIA TRANSFORMATION' [WAS] PERFORMED WITH DRAMATIC CONVICTION BY DEVONY SMITH."
-CORINNA DA FONESCA-WOLLHEIM
A champion of concert work, she made her Lincoln Center recital debut as the Grand Prize Winner of the MIMF Art Song competition. Devony was a finalist in the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Competition, where she received the Lyndon Woodside Award. In 2019, she was a soloist in Mahler’s Symphony no. 4 with the Colburn Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Yehuda Gilad. At Carnegie Hall, she participated in the prestigious Song Continues Workshop with Marilyn Horne, Renée Fleming, and Graham Johnson. In 2019, she was featured as a recitalist by Carnegie Hall’s Citywide Concerts through the Marilyn Horne Legacy at Carnegie Hall. She has a history of work with Brooklyn Art Song Society, where she has previously performed selections of Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne and a concert of Schubert Lieder. Devony was chosen as a Schwab Vocal Rising Star with a collaboration between the Caramoor Center and New York Festival of Song, with whom she made a debut at the Merkin Concert Hall. As a Sorel Fellow at Songfest, she performed John Harbison’s Simple Daylight for Harbison’s 80th birthday celebration. As a 2017 fellow at Ravinia Steans Music Institute, she collaborated with William Bolcom in a presentation of his Cabaret Songs. As a Marc and Eva Stern Fellow at Songfest, she performed the world premiere of Ben Moore’s John and Abigail and the west coast premiere of John Musto’s Six Scottish Songs.
Devony’s stage credits include Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Midatlantic Opera Company, the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon with Utopia Opera, and a long relationship with Kate Soper’s work Here Be Sirens, which she has taken on tour in three different seasons, including an appearance at National Sawdust. Devony’s theatrical experiences extend beyond opera: at Smothers Theater in Malibu, CA, she appeared in Irene Molloy in Hello, Dolly! and Mother Jones in Robert Shenkkan’s The Kentucky Cycle, a seven-hour-long play cycle in which she also sang Appalachian folk ballads while playing the fiddle. Devony received her B.A. from Pepperdine University, where she performed Meg in Adamo’s Little Women under the tutelage of the composer.