David Small

My favorite quote is from Joseph Campbell: "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." My goal with every student is to guide them to a more efficient singing technique so they can explore, discover, and express themselves more fully.

David Small joined the Conservatory in 2021 as a member of the voice faculty.

A baritone with a vibrant 40-year career in both opera and concert, Small has performed over 70 different opera roles in nearly 60 operas, including Rigoletto, Tosca (Scarpia), La traviata (Germont), La bohème (Marcello), and Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro), a role he has performed over 100 times. He has appeared with the Cincinnati May Festival, the Austin Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and Fort Wayne Philharmonic in works such as Elijah, Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Bloch’s Sacred Service, and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. He has collaborated with conductors James Conlon, Anton Coppola, Valery Ryvkin, Victor DeRenzi, Robert Larsen, and others. An avid recitalist, he has performed recitals with Anton Nel, Jean Anderson, Joachim Reinhuber, Donna Loewy, Steve Wogaman, and John Novacek, and has performed Schubert’s complete Winterreise cycle 13 times to date.

Small retired from the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music in 2020 after 20 years, during which he was chosen as a NATS Master Teacher (Intern Program, 2011). His students have been finalists in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, the International Verdi Baritone Competition, and other awards. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from DePauw University’s School of Music while studying with Thomas Fitzpatrick (protégé of American baritone Mack Harrell) and earned an Artist Diploma in Opera and an M.M. in Voice Performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of the great Italian basso Italo Tajo.