The USC School of Music is pleased to welcome Clinton Smith as Assistant Professor and Music Director/Conductor of Opera at USC.

Beginning in Fall 2025, Smith will conduct fall and spring Opera at USC productions and serve as a collaborative pianist working with graduate students. He will assist Ellen Schlaefer, Director of Opera at USC, in choosing the repertoire and casts for the season, and collaborate with Scott Weiss, Director of Orchestras, to select orchestral musicians.

Smith's recent conducting appearances have included the opera companies of Atlanta, Minnesota, Arizona, Florentine, Indianapolis, Dayton, Orlando, Kentucky, Birmingham, Tacoma, Las Vegas, Middlebury, Fargo-Moorhead, Pacific Northwest, and Skylark. He served on the Santa Fe Opera's music staff for nine seasons and as chorus master/assistant conductor at Minnesota Opera for four seasons; other music staff positions have included Juilliard Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, Atlanta Opera, Portland Opera, Sarasota Opera, Kentucky Opera, and Ash Lawn Opera.

For a collective nine seasons, Smith was music director of both Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers and the St. Cloud Symphony. He has guest-conducted at the University of Michigan, Western Ontario University, Baldwin-Wallace University, and Hamline University. He is currently on the faculty of Georgia State University and music staff at the The Atlanta Opera. He holds conducting degrees from the University of Michigan and studied piano and violin performance at the University of Texas at Austin.

Learn more about Smith at ClintonSmithConductor.com.