Raleigh native Ken Smith, who will narrate “Lincoln Portrait” as it is performed by the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra in February 2009, has worked all over the world as actor, singer, stage director and teacher. He was Performance House Manager at the Metropolitan Opera and also served on the production staff of the Municipal Opera of Bielefeld in Germany, assisting in the staging of operas and musicals.
 
As a voice teacher working with singers ranging from beginners to professional opera performers, he maintained private studios in Verona, Paris and Wilmington, NC. He has conducted master classes in singing and interpretation for the opera studios of the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and the Opera de Santiago in Chile.

As a stage director, he has produced operas and musicals for professional, community and university theaters all over the country, including the Fresno Lyric Opera and the Triangle Opera in Durham.

As an actor, he was a member of the Theatre 21 repertory company in Los Angeles, where he appeared as John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, Iago in “Othello”, Petruchio in “The Taming of the Shrew”, Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady” and as leading man in numerous original plays commissioned by the company. Closer to home, he worked in Romulus Linney’s repertory theater group at NC State in Raleigh, where he appeared as the Christ in Pär Lagerkvist’s “Let Man Live” and as Ben in Murray Schisgall’s “The Tiger Makes Out”. With the Carolina Playmakers in Chapel Hill he was Pooh-Bah in “The Mikado”, while the UNC Opera Theater featured him as Colline in “La Boheme”, the title role of “Don Giovanni” and Oscar Hubbard in Marc Blitzstein’s “Regina”. He has appeared in concert in Germany as the bass soloist in Verdi’s “Requiem” with the North-West German Radio Orchestra and on-stage as Kochkarev in Moussorsky’s “Zhenitba”, Tamino in “The Magic Flute” and Mathurin in Gluck’s “L’ivrogne corrige” with the Esslingen Summer Festival.

He was a popular radio personality in the state, serving on the air for WPTF, WCHL in Chapel Hill, WDNC in Durham and WHQR in Wilmington. He was also “the voice” of the Opera Company of North Carolina, serving as host/moderator for various benefit concerts and social events. He has narrated films and audio-visual presentations for the NC Department of Public Instruction and various other state agencies and has voiced numerous radio and television commercials for the state and the national markets.

The “Lincoln Portrait” he has previously performed with the Moore County Symphonic Band in Pinehurst and in Germany with the Bielefeld Philharmonic in Germany - in both English and German. Smith is presently Minister of Music and Worship at the Hope Valley Baptist Church in Durham. He was for six years Director of Music Ministries at First Baptist Church of Laurinburg.