MaryBeth Davison Smith,
soprano, holds degrees from the University of Illinois and the
University of Texas at San Antonio. She was a member of the
voice faculty in the School of Music at Texas State
University--San Marcos from 1991 to 2002. She has been a frequent
presenter at the Texas Music Educators Association conventions
in the Vocal and College divisions, as well as at the Texoma
Regional Conventions of the National Association of Teachers of
Singing. Smith was selected as one of twelve young American
voice teachers to participate in the 1994 NATS Internship
program in Boulder, CO. She is a nationally recognized
authority on natural performance improvement.
With a
distinguished national reputation as a performer in concert,
recital, and staged works, Smith is also in demand as a
clinician and adjudicator, and keeps a busy schedule working
with university opera workshops,
teacher inservice presentations for fine arts faculties in major
Texas school districts, choral clinics, and master classes. Her
skills as a master teacher have been recognized by
artist-in-residence appointments at the Crane School of Music,
Marywood University, and Trinity College, London. Her students
have been accepted to the National Music Camp at Interlochen,
MI, and to prestigious undergraduate and graduate programs,
including the Eastman School, Peabody Conservatory, Oberlin
Conservatory, University of Maryland, Louisiana State
University, Vanderbilt University, and Southern Methodist University.
MaryBeth
Smith is also accredited as a Guild Certified Feldenkrais
Practitionercm, teaching Awareness Through Movement® and
Functional Integration® lessons, classes, and workshops in
Houston and throughout the region. She maintains
a private voice studio in Houston, Texas,
where she heads the Feldenkrais® Center of Houston.
She is a member of the teaching faculty at the Jung Center,
and has written extensively about human performance
improvement and the Feldenkrais Method.
"She helped
me tremendously. She was able to diagnose a lot of bad
habits I had built over the years. I am singing with more
freedom than I have known in years; maybe ever. I am very
grateful to her." -- Melba McCollum, Houston ISD classroom
music teacher.
