Author Background:

Janice Harper Smith received her Masters Degree in Music Education from Murray University in Kentucky. She was a doctoral candidate in her third year on an NDEA Fellowship at the University of Illinois when she began a singing career in Europe in 1972. As a coloratura soprano, she sang in many opera houses and concert halls in Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland and Austria. Her vast repertoire includes the operatic roles of Strauss’s Zerbinetta, Mozart’s Queen of the Night, Konstanze, Blondchen, Despina, and Zerlina, Verdi’s Gilda and Oscar, Donizetti’s Adina, Puccini’s Musetta, and Wagner’s Waldvogel and Woglinde. Much of her concert repertoire, such as Haydn’s “The Creation,” Händel’s “Judas Maccabeus,” and Schönberg’s “Jacob's Ladder” was performed in the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna.

In the 1980’s she was in demand as an interpreter of contemporary music, which resulted in world premieres and numerous radio recordings in Austria, Germany, France and Holland. Ms. Harper has performed with many European symphony orchestras, including those in Vienna, Paris, Munich, and Den Haag and Bern, and Chamber Music ensembles such as the Alban Berg String Quartet, the Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt, the Viennese Ensemble Kontrapunkt and The 20th Century Music Ensemble of Vienna. She was soloist in the Mozartwochen Festival in Salzburg, the Berliner Festwochen, and the Schubertiade in Vienna.

From 1991 to 2001, she was a Professor of Voice at the University of Mannheim in Germany where she taught vocal pedagogy and trained aspiring singers. She has been a teacher in the Daniel Ferro Vocal Program in Tuscany Italy from 1994 to 2011. She teaches privately at her home in Lugano, Switzerland, and in other major cities during her international travels. In 2005, her book "Atemtechnik als Roter Faden" was published in Germany.

Janice Harper Smith is married to Robert Dean Smith, one of the world’s foremost tenors for German and Italian repertoire. She has been his voice teacher since his change from baritone to tenor and coached him in all his roles. (www.robertdeansmith.com)