Dr. Paul Brodene Smith has performed in more than ten countries. His concert and operatic career has brought him to important venues including engagements at the Her Majesty’s Theatre (London), the Deutsches Nationaltheater (Weimar), Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), the Prague State Opera, Théâtre des Arts Opera de Normandie (Rouen), and the Cairo Opera (Egypt). His operatic repertoire includes such important roles as Romeo, the Duke, Faust, Almaviva, Pinkerton, Lensky, Belmonte, Ferrando, and Tamino. Comfortable on the musical stage as well, he performed Piangi in both the London and Hamburg productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, as well as productions of Candide, and Sweeney Todd. His concert and art song repertoire include works of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Rossini, Finzi, Vaughn-Williams, Liszt, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and Bach.

After making his directorial debut with Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea for the University of Illinois, Dr. Smith directed and conducted a production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the University of Nebraska Kearney in the spring of 2007: where he also staged and conducted the 2008 production of Irving Berlin and Moss Hart’s musical As Thousands Cheer.

Dr. Smith completed graduate studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago (M.M.) and the University of Illinois Champaign –Urbana (D.M.A). His doctoral thesis Target Training: an Approach for a more efficient vowel production is a cross disciplinary comparison of foreign vowel articulations. The impetus for the thesis stemmed from the more than eleven years spent in Europe. Vowel production, including aspects of linguistics, phonology, physiognomy and its aero-acoustic properties, is the concentration of his research.

Prior to accepting the position at WSU Dr. Smith has taught at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Blackburn College, Prairie State College and the Stella Musical Academy in Hamburg Germany.