Bettina Smith is from Bergen, Norway. After graduating from the Bergen Conservatory of Music, she studied with Wout Oosterkamp and Elly Ameling at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Den Haag, Holland, receiving a Masters Degree with distinction. This was followed by specialized study in Switzerland at the Zürich International Opera Studio. Bettina has since performed in Europe’s leading opera houses and concert halls and at major European festivals.
With a wide repertoire ranging from medieval to contemporary music, Bettina Smith appears regularly as an oratorio and cantata soloist, in addition to being an active chamber-musician. Her special love for the French and German art-song repertoire, makes her a frequent guest artist at festivals and concert series in Norway and abroad, together with the Dutch pianist Jan Willem Nelleke and the Norwegian pianist Einar Røttingen.
Festivals, opera houses and concert halls at which Bettina has performed include Bergen International Festival, Festspiele Zürich, Rhijnauwen Chamber Music Festival, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Mozart-Tage and Bach-Tage Luzern, Brahms Festival Den Haag, Hindemith Festival Den Haag, Stravinsky Festival 2000 Amsterdam, Staatsoper Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, Het Muziektheater Amsterdam, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, KKL Luzern, Fresh Voices Festival San Francisco, De Doelen Rotterdam, Grieg 07, Fartein Valen Festival, Euterpe and Laudinella St. Moritz.
Bettina has recorded for Dutch, German, Swiss and Norwegian Radio and has received several prestigious scholarships, among them, the Edwin Ruud Stipend and the Herbert von Karajan Music Legacy. In 2001 she was a prizewinner in the Francesco Viñas Competition in Barcelona, where she received a special prize awarded by Dalton Baldwin for outstanding lieder singing.
She has previously released three critically acclaimed CDs on the LAWO Classics label with pianist Einar Røttingen: "Serres Chaudes" (LWC1008), with songs by Fauré, Chausson and Saint-Saëns; "Voices of Women" (LWC1067), with songs by Norwegian composers Valen, Stalheim and Hvoslef; and "Fêtes Galantes" (LWC1116), with songs by Debussy and Fauré.
Bettina Smith is Associate Professor of singing at the Faculty of Performing Arts, University of Stavanger, Norway.