Philip Smith

One time zoologist and National Otter Surveyor of England, Philip hung up his waders to study singing with Barbara Robotham at the Royal Northern College of Music, graduating with distinction in 2008.  He is the recipient of a number of awards and is a Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme alumnus and Crear Scholar.  He continues to have lessons with Robert Dean.

He regularly performs in concerts and recitals across the UK and mainland Europe.  In 2009 he performed at the Uzerche International Festival (France), in Krakow (Poland) and the Making Music Malta 2009 Festival.  In the UK he took part in recitals for the 2009 Leeds Lieder+ Festival and the Aldeburgh Festival where he appeared in a recital of Britten Song Cycles with Malcolm Martineau, a concert that was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.  He has subsequently recorded Tit for Tat (Britten) as well as a few of Britten’s unknown childhood songs with Malcolm Martineau, available now on Onyx Classics.  Philip is a Samling Scholar and made his Wigmore Hall debut in their showcase concert in December 2010.  In 2011 he performed a recital with Roger Vignoles in Santiago de Compsotela, Spain and this year he returned to the Uzerche International Festival as well as appearing at the Cheltenham Music Festival, the MOMA festival in Wales and The Kings Place Festival in London.

Philip regularly takes part in education and community projects introducing opera and song to new audiences of all ages.  He has worked with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opera North education departments, Leeds Lieder + Festival in conjunction with Pyramid of Arts and most recently with Wigmore Hall Education in a series of highly successful concerts devised and presented by Dominic Harlan.

A recipient of the Independent Opera/Royal Northern College of Music Postgraduate Voice Fellowship in 2008 he is equally comfortable on the Opera stage and has worked with many of the major opera companies in the UK including Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opera North and Scottish Opera.  He has been invited to perform at the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte, Montepulciano twice and earlier this year he made his major European house debut as Sid in Albert Herring, a production directed by Keith Warner, for Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen.

Future plans include a return to Opera North and he will sing Junius in Rape of Lucretia (Britten) in Florence.