Mezzo-soprano Bettina Smith is a performing artist and Professor of singing at the University of Stavanger, Norway. Bettina began her studies at the Bergen Conservatory of Music where she graduated with the highest degree. She then pursued her studies with Wout Oosterkamp and Elly Ameling at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Den Haag, Holland, receiving a Masters Degree with distinction. In 2001, Bettina made her debut at the Staatsoper Berlin in Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and has since then been performing at leading festivals and concert halls in Europe. In 2013, Bettina made her operatic debut in the USA, singing the leading role of “Mrs. Schrödinger”, in John Bilotta’s “Quantum Mechanic” at the Fresh Voices festival in San Francisco. She has received several prestigious scholarships, a.o. the Edwin Ruud Stipend and the Herbert von Karajan Music Legacy. She was a prizewinner in the Françesco Viñas competition in Barcelona 2001, and was awarded a special prize given by Dalton Baldwin for outstanding lieder­-singing. Bettina has released five solo CDs on label LAWO Classics with songs by Fauré, Chausson, Saint-Saens, Debussy and Norwegian contemporary composers, all to great international acclaim. She has recorded the complete cycles for voice and piano by Gabriel Fauré. Her fifth CD The Artist's Secret containing songs by female composers was released on LAWO Classics in February 2021. Artist photos: Anna-Julia Granberg / BLUNDERBUSS