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BIOGRAPHY
GRAMMY®-nominated for Best Classical Vocal Solo and praised by The New York Times for her “sensual” and “strong” voice, mezzo-soprano Devony Smith bridges the worlds of classical opera and cutting-edge contemporary music with equal mastery. A versatile artist with a rich operatic foundation and a fearless commitment to new work, she brings both technical precision and vivid interpretive insight to every performance.
A sought-after collaborator for today’s leading composers, Devony has premiered works by Grammy Award-winner Jennifer Higdon, Jake Landau, Eve Beglarian, and Luna Pearl Woolf. This spring, she originated the role of the Designer in the world premiere of Woolf’s Number Our Days at the Perelman Performing Arts Center with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street. She has a longstanding relationship with Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens—performing it across four seasons, including at National Sawdust. She recently joined the Albany Symphony for a program of five world premieres at the EMPAC Theater in Troy. In the past year alone, her work with the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller has included nine premieres.
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Equally at home in the canon, Devony’s operatic credits span roles such as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, the title role in La Cenerentola with Opera Modesto, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with New York City Opera, Dido in Dido and Aeneas at Teatro Comunale di Narni, and the Rooster in a new orchestral arrangement of The Cunning Little Vixen, recorded for Naxos in collaboration with Opera Freiburg.
"'SHAMES TRIPLE ARIA TRANSFORMATION' [WAS] PERFORMED WITH DRAMATIC CONVICTION BY DEVONY SMITH."
-CORINNA DA FONESCA-WOLLHEIM
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Her upcoming season reflects her dual artistry: the Reading/NY premiere of Jake Landau’s Opera & Aeternaas Dido alongside a distinguished female cast; the NYFOS NEXT concert, featuring music by Shawn Chang and Sofia Rocha; performances as Clorinda in Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Tilly in the live premiere of Nico Muhly’s The Glitch; and a Gershwin weekend with Lyric Fest.
A champion of concert repertoire, Devony has appeared with Caramoor Center for the Arts, Carnegie Hall Citywide, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and SongFest (as a Sorel Fellow), as well as in solo appearances at Carnegie Hall in Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Dan Forrest’s Jubilate Deo, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.
Her recordings include the role of the Lover in Kate Soper’s Romance of the Rose and the alto solos in Benjamin Wenzelberg’s Any of those Decembers. This spring marked the release of her debut solo album In this short Life with pianist Danny Zelibor, featuring premiere recordings by Jennifer Higdon, David Lang, Will Liverman, and others—encapsulating her distinctive voice at the intersection of operatic tradition and contemporary expression.
