We recently connected with Adam Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Adam, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Being an opera singer is a difficult creative profession. Starting out can be tough because it really depends on the kind of voice that you have, as to which journey you take. I was always a singer from a very young age, but violin was my first instrument. Once I was in my late teens I realised that singing was going to take over. I was always very interested in musical theatre and acting. But more or less fell accidentally into opera.

Unless you have some kind of cultural upbringing that includes opera, it is not the most natural creative art form for a young singer.

Once I went to classical singing school, otherwise known as conservatoire, everything became very clear as to which way I should turn. I would say I was lucky because my voice was very naturally inclined towards opera. I have a bigger voice and therefore I felt I had more options at that time.

When training to be an opera singer it can be dangerous to try to speed up the process. A lot of what it entails is to do with nature and training. This takes a lot of time. It takes longer for bigger voices. Finding the right teacher is the most crucial part.

I had some problems with this early on at music college and eventually ended up teaching myself the majority of what I know now.

The one skill that has influenced my singing the most is the violin. The musical line that you learn from the violin is incredibly helpful when learning to sing beautifully.

I would say the main obstacle that I had was my judgement of myself. It is such a subjective art form that judgement is normal, but we are our harshest critics. This can be very useful and it can also be very detrimental.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Adam Smith and I am International operatic tenor. I travel the world performing in different opera houses in different countries and different cities for 11 months of the year. I perform mostly the romantic era of opera which includes famous operas like La Bohème and Tosca by Puccini.

I have been a musician all my life, starting on the violin at the age of 4.

I was always into musical theatre and acting when I was younger, and originally wanted to go to musical theatre school. However, taking advice from my mother, I decided to train classically as I had done with the violin.

I did my Bachelor of Music at the Royal Northern College of music in Manchester, United Kingdom. I subsequently went to the Guildhall School of music and drama for a Master of Music.

I started singing fully professionally in 2014, and have never looked back.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I have always said my goal with opera is to try to bring back some remnants of the 20th century style of singing. The old Italian School of singing has somewhat died out in the world today. It is a school about which books have been written, and I endeavour to refine this way of singing every day.

The reason I want to do this is because I believe this style of singing is the most emotional, the most connected, and the most intense way of singing. It really enables the singer to sing right at the heart of the audience.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

For the last five or 10 years, the opera world has been releasing live broadcasts in the cinema and on TV, of operas around the world.

I must stress that opera is a live art form, it is meant to be viewed live. It is based on musical frequencies that hopefully penetrate through the fourth wall of the theatre and into the audience.

For this reason you will never experience an opera in its most real and emotional form without going to the theatre and feeling the energy. It has become very easy to stay at home and watch on the TV, but this kind of art has to be live. It should be new every time and not recorded and repeated. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.adamsmithtenor.com
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• Youtube: Adam Smith Tenor

Image Credits
Nikos Kokkas