Lisa Newill-Smith

Soprano Lisa Newill-Smith’s Despina was described by the Hastings Observer as “one of the must subtle performances I can recall, splendidly sung and totally alive to the text.”

2019/2020 highlights including a role debut as Servilia with Shoestring Opera Melbourne in Berlin. She will also continue her work researching and performing music written by women with Opus XX Orchestra. Last season she sang Queen Gwenevere in the world premiere of Keith Beal’s Merlin, a jump-in Despina (Cosí fan tutte), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Madame Lidoine (Les Dialogues de Carmélites). In 2016, Lisa sang Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) with Alltagsoper, later jumping in for the Royal Antwerp Conservatoire, and had her debut as Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) in Alltagsoper’s premiere performance. In 2014, she premiered a new opera, Absolved Passions by Scottish composer David Wishart at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Other operatic and performance highlights include Hélène (Hin und Zurück), Prima cercatrice (Suor Angelica), Prima Ancella (Medea), Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen), Josephine (H.M.S. Pinafore) and Wanda (La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein), as well as performances with the J. Strauss Orchester Wiesbaden and Opera Classica Europa, the Trentino Music Academy, the Greek Opera Studio and the Berlin Opera Studio in Syros and Bayreuth. Lisa has sung in masterclasses with Dame Felicity Lott, Miriam Gauci and Renata Scotto. Her oratorio and concert works include Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Mozart’s Requiem in D minor and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. Lisa was a finalist in the Chicago Oratorio Award with the American Prize. In 2015, she was a finalist in the Opera Classica Europa competition, and a semi-finalist in the American Prize professional opera division. In 2017, she reached the finals of the Iuventas Canti Competition in Slovakia. This season she will be singing in the Grange Festival Competition in London. Lisa is from Virginia, USA and is currently based in Berlin, Germany. For more information visit www.lisanewillsmith.com