Photo Credit: www.richardsmagur.com
Richard Trey Smagur, known as “Trey" to his family and friends, is an HCT alumnus and resident of Clarkesville, Georgia. He has appeared many times on the John Kollock stage, most notably in Damn Yankees, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, and Peter Pan. He has been noted for his "attractive lyric tenor" and "vivid presence" (Opera Today) and was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2017.
Professionally, Trey has appeared with Wolf Trap Opera as Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette and as the tenor soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Filene Center. He has also appeared alongside Michelle de Young for Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) at The Aspen Music Festival & School. He graduated from the Houston Grand Opera Studio in the spring of 2020, with roles including Gastone de Letorières in La Traviata, Young Servant in Elektra, and Count Almaviva in select performances of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Tsarevitch Gvidon in The Golden Cockerel, Števa Buryja in Jenufa, Steuermann in The Flying Dutchman, Parpignol in La Bohéme, and in Handel's Messiah.
Trey will be appearing with The Atlanta Opera as one of 12 world-class opera singers in the newly-formed Atlanta Opera Company Players in live presentations at Oglethorpe University's Hermance Stadium, and through creative digital media alternatives until such time as live performances are permitted. "The folks at The Atlanta Opera have made a path for artists to continue to do what we do best, have a platform to speak on the issues of our present through art, musically and emotionally," said Trey, "Georgia is my home and I could not be more excited to head back to the land of peaches and make music with what can only be described as an exceptional group of artists."
We're so happy to have Trey back in our neck of the woods! To see Trey perform live as Canio in Pagliacci in the Molly Blank Big Tent Series with The Atlanta Opera with performances on select dates beginning October 22, 2020, through November 13, 2020, go to The Atlanta Opera's website here. You can also see him perform as part of the Big Tent Concert Series in Mack the Knife: An Evening with Kurt Weill on October 27, 2020.