About Reginald
"With his big, reverberant voice, he compellingly conveys both the aging character’s fragility and time-worn strength."
CHICAGO SUN TIMES
Biography
GRAMMY® and Emmy Award-winning baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. is a "passionate performer" (The New York Times) with a voice that is "electric [and] hall-filling" (The Baltimore Sun), praised as "one of the most exciting baritone sounds to come along in years" (Opera News).
Smith's 2026-2027 season opens with his house debut at the Canadian Opera Company as Giorgio Germont in Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, followed by his company and role debut with Anchorage Opera in the title role of Verdi's Macbeth. He returns to The Phoenix Symphony for his celebrated annual holiday performances, before beginning the new year with debuts at the Montgomery Symphony as Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème and the Waco Symphony as bass soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. In the spring, Smith makes his company and role debut as Jochanaan in Richard Strauss's Salome with Kentucky Opera, and closes the season with his house debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as part of the Holland Festival, reprising the role of Older Emile in Terence Blanchard's Champion.
Last season, Smith made his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist, returning later in the season for the centennial celebration of American composer Carlisle Floyd, performing as soloist in his cantata The Pilgrimage. His house debuts included Seattle Opera as the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance; Minnesota Opera as Tonio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci; and the Oakland Symphony for his first performance of Verdi's Requiem. He also performed his role debut as Peter in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel at the Houston Grand Opera, and the title role in Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. To close the season, Smith returned to San Francisco Opera for its Pride Gala and to the Brevard Music Center as baritone soloist in Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, part of the season finale concert program featuring Yo-Yo Ma. His portrayal of the Pirate King was recognized by Opera Magazine, which featured him as its Stage Door young artist in October 2025.
During his operatic career, Smith has performed with leading companies worldwide. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2019 as Jim in Porgy and Bess, winning a 2021 GRAMMY® Award (Best Opera Recording) for that production. Other highlights include his 2023 performance as Amonasro in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Aida immediately after jumping in for the company’s production of Terence Blanchard’s Champion — inspiring New City Stage to write, “Baritone Reginald Smith Jr., who was so magnificent as the older Emile in Champion, made a chilling Amonasro in what is often a throwaway role.” In 2021, he debuted with Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera as Germont in La Traviata and gave a critically acclaimed performance as Castor in the world premiere of Gregory Spears’ Castor and Patience at Cincinnati Opera.
In addition, Smith has also appeared with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Portland Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Hong Kong, Atlanta Opera, New Orleans Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Toledo Opera, Opera Idaho, Opera Carolina, San Diego Opera, and Fort Worth Opera. Some of his credits include roles in productions of Verdi's Falstaff (title role), Tosca (Scarpia), Porgy and Bess (Porgy; Jake), Aida (Amonasro), La Traviata (Giorgio Germont), I Pagliacci (Tonio), Cavalleria Rusticana (Alfio), Le Nozze di Figaro (Count Almaviva), La Bohème (Marcello), The Pirates of Penzance (The Pirate King), Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso), L'Italiana in Algeri (Taddeo), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Don Bartolo), Die Fledermaus (Falke), Madama Butterfly (Sharpless), Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (Capulet), Fellow Travelers (Senator Charles Potter/General Airlie/Bartender), Rigoletto (Monterone), and Madame Butterfly (Bonzo).
In concert, Smith has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Nashville Symphony, National Chorale at Lincoln Center, and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra at Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, as well as the Oregon Symphony, May Festival, Cincinnati Pops, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony Orchestra (GA), North Carolina Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony, Johnson City Symphony, and The Syracuse Orchestra. In the 2024-25 season, he performed as a soloist with the New Jersey Symphony led by Xian Zhang, The Phoenix Symphony and Chorus, the Memphis Symphony, and St. Croix Valley Opera, and appeared in recital with Houston Grand Opera’s Giving Voice and at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, South Carolina. He has also returned as the featured baritone soloist for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas Pops performances and participated in a United in Song performance with the American Pops Orchestra, televised nationally on PBS. Other highlights include Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems, Schubert’s Mass in G, Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, Handel’s Messiah, and Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette. Alongside the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Dallas-based WFAA-TV, he shared in a Lone Star Regional Emmy Award as the featured soloist in the DSO’s 2018 Christmas Pops concert.
Smith is the 2021 U.S. representative at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, a Grand Finals winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a Houston Grand Opera Studio graduate. Besides receiving recognition from the Dallas Opera Guild Competition, the Mildred Miller International Vocal Competition, and the Lucia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Vocal Competition, Smith has earned first place in the National Opera Association Competition: Scholarship Division, Orpheus Vocal Competition: Young Artist Division, George London Vocal Competition: Top Prize (George London Award), and Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition: Top Prize. He also received a 2015 Sara Tucker Study Grant and a 2016 Career Grant from the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation.
Born in Atlanta, Smith grew up a dedicated choral student from elementary school onward. His formative experiences as a music student inspired him to double major in Vocal Performance and Choral Music Education at the University of Kentucky, where he earned degrees in both. While he ultimately chose a performance career, he has channeled his love of teaching into numerous masterclasses, where he is known as a highly knowledgeable and engaging presenter. He returned to his alma mater during the 2017-2018 season for a performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Lexington Singers and the University of Kentucky Chorale. He later returned to the University of Kentucky for a Master’s in Vocal Performance, completing the degree in the Spring of 2021.
"Reginald Smith Jr. disappeared into the character of Older Griffith, his deeply sonorous baritone as telling as his hesitant, shambling manner...
Smith brought a heartbreaking authenticity and an understated dignity
to a part that could easily have developed into cheap sentimentality."
OPERA MAGAZINE