W. Stephen Smith, baritone, has been an AMFS artist-faculty member since 1996. He became professor of voice and opera at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music in the fall of 2011 after thirteen years on the faculty of The Juilliard School. Previously he taught at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. For thirteen years he also served on the staff of Houston Grand Opera Studio as a vocal instructor. He was formerly chair of the voice department at the St. Louis Conservatory of Music and on faculty at Oklahoma Christian College. He holds degrees from Harding University, the University of Arkansas, and Oklahoma City University, where he was a student of Inez Lunsford Silberg. Mr. Smith has performed over forty roles in opera and musical theater and has been a soloist with the St. Louis and Oklahoma symphonies. He was a finalist in the district Metropolitan Opera auditions and a winner of the Robertson Award with the Oklahoma Symphony Young Artists auditions. Mr. Smith has been stage director for twenty-two different productions and served as music director and conductor for several. His students have performed leading roles in most of the major opera houses and concert halls around the world. Many have placed in the district and regional Metropolitan Opera auditions; more than twenty-five have been national finalists. Others have been winners in numerous other vocal competitions and have participated in major national and international music festivals and training programs. His book, The Naked Voice: A Wholistic Approach to Singing, was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press.