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The American mezzo-soprano (and lyric soprano), Stephanie Smittle, obtained her Bachelor’s of Philosophy degree from Hendrix College.
Comfortable in a variety of genres, Stephanie Smittle composes and performs her original work with the jazz-Americana group “The Smittle Band,” sings with acclaimed metal band Iron Tongue, leads an Arkansas-music-based duo called “Stephen y Stephanie,” and performs traditional Yiddish music with the Meshugga Klezmer Band. From venues of a few seats to several hundred, there are few stages in Little Rock on which she has not performed.
Stephanie Smittle's operatic roles include: Fiordiligi in W.A. Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with Opera in the Ozarks, Queen Anne and Queen Elizabeth Woodville in the premiere of Karen Griebling's Richard III: A Crown of Roses, A Crown of Thorns, Second Lady in W.A. Mozart's Magic Flute with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, performances with Opera in the Rock, as well as summer study in Italy as a scholar with the Oberlin Conservatory. Her oratorio performances include Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, John Rutter's Requiem, and Johannes Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem.
Stephanie Smittle's history of engagements includes singing ancient chant as a cantor in a 200-year-old Episcopal church, slinking around stage in an avant-garde Kurt Weill opera, howling in front of roaring amplifiers as a member of southern sludge rock group Iron Tongue and premiering new art songs by living composers for the recital hall. Her self-titled debut solo album is a collection of ten songs for voice and electric autoharp, which the Arkansas Democrat Gazette called “stunning” and “incandescent … a skilled and observant lyricist unafraid to express vulnerability and wonder and rage.” She is a member of Trinity Cathedral Choir, Little Rock (Director: Colin MacKnight) and also performs as a soloist.
Stephanie Smittle is a former editorial director and culture editor of the Arkansas Times. She currently lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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