Nicholas Hurndall Smith
Nicholas Hurndall Smith read Music at Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he was Organ Scholar, and then went on to study with David Pollard on the Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Opera Course, supported by bursaries from The Leverhulme Trust, The Worshipful Company of Salters and The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipemakers and Tobacco Blenders.
He began his career with a Rodney Milnes review in Opera Magazine: “The tenor Nicholas Smith shone especially brightly, a most accomplished actor as well as an inventive singer” and he has since been described as “Wonderfully manic” in London’s Metro and the Times wrote of “The delightful cameo of Nicholas Smith’s servant Arv”. Other roles include Lurcanio, Snout and Don Curzio for English Touring Opera, Tamino for Longborough Festival Opera, McHeath for Opera Project, Ecclitico and Normanno at Iford Arts, Tom Rakewell at Dartington, Lysander for British Youth Opera, Ferrando and Don Ottavio for St John’s Opera, and Joabel in Charpentier’s David et Jonathas for the Académie Baroque Européenne (c. William Christie).
Of his concert work the Daily Telegraph wrote “A refreshingly mellow tenor” and the Financial Times of his “Rapt and devout delivery”, and he recently sang the arias in Bach’s St John Passion at the London Handel Festival, Bach Cantatas 63 and 65 with the Academy of Ancient Music, Schubert’s Winterreise at St. Marien Spandau, Berlin, the title role in Carissimi’s Jonah in the BBC Proms, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Kristiansund, and the Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion in Jever. He is in demand as a Britten soloist and most recently sang the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with the Haffner Orchestra, the Spring Symphony (c. Paul Spicer) at the Mary Wakefield Festival and the War Requiem with the combined choral societies of Cumbria.
He is a long-term member of the highly acclaimed solo-voice ensemble I Fagiolini, with whom he has appeared throughout Europe, America, South Africa and the Far East as well as regularly on BBC Radio 3.
Future plans include concerts in Bergen, Washington, Berlin and Malta, further performances of Winterreise in Germany, Sellem in The Rake’s Progress for Opera East and Iford Arts and Tamino in The Magic Flute for Opera Project.