November 16, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — Guest clinician, W. Stephen Smith, will work with nine DePauw University School of Music voice students in two master classes on Sunday, November 20. Both of the classes will take place in Thompson Recital Hall, located within the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts, and are free and open to the public.
The first master class will run from 4 to 6 p.m., opening with a brief introduction to Smith’s philosophy and method. The second master class takes place at 7:30 p.m. that night.
W. Stephen Smith joined the voice faculty at The Juilliard School in the fall of 1998 after having served for eight years on the voice faculty at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. Additionally, Mr. Smith was on the staff of Houston Grand Opera as voice instructor for the Houston Opera Studio from 1990 to 2003. He was a member of the music faculty at Oklahoma Christian College for eleven years 
and has also been on the artistic staff at Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony and the Cimarron Circuit Opera Company.
Smith has given master classes and clinics throughout the United States, including at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Oberlin Conservatory, and at regional and district National Association of Teachers of Singing conventions. He has also been a guest lecturer at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and at Yonsei University in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Oxford University Press published his book, The Naked Voice: A Wholistic Approach to Singing, in February 2007.
Smith has performed over forty roles in opera and musical theatre, including eight title roles. He has performed as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony and the Oklahoma Symphony.
Founded in 1884, the DePauw University School of Music is the nation's sixth-oldest private institution for post-secondary music instruction and the longest-running in Indiana. Learn more here.