Clinton Smith

Clinton Smith returns to Minnesota Opera for a fourth season as assistant/cover conductor and chorusmaster, conducting performances of Lucia di Lammermoor and Madame Butterfly, after making his debut conducting a performance of La traviata last season. Additionally, he will conduct a workshop of a newly commissioned work by Ricky Ian Gordon entitled The Garden of the Finzi Continis.

He has been the cover conductor and chorusmaster for productions of Il trovatore, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Faust, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Il barbiere di Sivilglia, Les pêcheurs de perles, Casanova's Homecoming, Roberto Devereux, La bohème, Salome, Orfeo ed Euridice, La Cenerentola, Maria Stuarda, La traviata and Wuthering Heights with The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Opera Orchestra.

Recently, Clinton conducted Madama Butterfly for Hamline University, guest conducted the Wayzata Symphony Orchestra and led a workshop of Kevin Puts' commissioned opera Silent Night for the Minnesota Opera's New Works Initiative. This summer, Clinton worked for San Francisco Opera's Merola Program as assistant conductor/chorusmaster for Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Past positions include assistant conductor/coach for Glimmerglass Opera (Tolomeo, The Tender Land), conductor for the Canadian Operatic Arts Academy at Western Ontario University, conductor and coach with Opéra du Périgord in Périgueux, France (La vie parisienne, La Périchole and La belle Hélène), Austrian-American Mozart Opera Academy in Salzburg, Austria (Le nozze di Figaro, Zaïde, Der Schauspieldirektor, Die Zauberflöte and Bastien und Bastienne); University of Michigan Opera Theatre (The Bartered Bride, La bohème), assistant conductor and coach at the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy (La bohème), music director of the University of Michigan Life Sciences Orchestra; music director of the University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society (The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, Patience, The Yeomen of the Guard and The Sorcerer); assistant conductor of the University of Michigan Symphony, Philharmonia and Campus Orchestras; music director of the Starlight Symphony Orchestra, conductor of the University of Texas Undergraduate Opera (Le nozze di Figaro, Der Schauspieldirektor and Bastien und Bastienne); and assistant conductor of the University of Texas Butler Opera Theatre (Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi).

Smith holds a BM from University of Texas at Austin (piano and violin), and an MM and DMA in conducting from the University of Michigan. His teachers include Kenneth Kiesler, Martin Katz and Peter Bay.