Associate Professor (Lecturer)
David Schmidt is an Associate Professor (Lecturer) for the University of Utah Department of Theatre. His classes include voice lessons, vocal pedagogy, audition technique, and music theory, and he served as the Head of the Musical Theatre Program from 2021 to 2023. Prior to his appointment as faculty member with the University of Utah, he was an Adjunct Professor of Voice for both the Musical Theatre and Classical Voice programs at Weber State University.
David earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and a Master of Music degree in Vocal Pedagogy, and has worked on his Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of Utah.
David is the co-founder and past Board President of the Salt Lake City’s first high school for talented performing artists, Salt Lake High School for the Performing Arts. He is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Utah Light Opera Company.
David has worked with the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) as past State Governor, past president of his local chapter, and Program Director for the 2010 NATS National Convention.
David has authored numerous articles about singing and the teaching of singing for many national magazines and websites, and is a frequent lecturer for music conventions and symposiums.
David is co-author, with his wife, Shalee, of GottaSing, a 3-DVD set of instructional voice lessons. He is also the author of an 8-CD set of vocal instruction for the beginning singer produced by InAChord Productions.
Opera and Operetta directing credits include: Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail (2012), Don Pasquale (2013), Hänsel und Gretel (2014) and Cosi fan tutte (2015) at the St. Anton Arts Festival (St. Anton, Austria); and Die Zaubeflote, Pirates of Penzance, and The Gondoliers for Utah Light Opera.
Musical Theatre directing credits include: Les Miserables, The Wild Party, Songs for a New World, Sweeney Todd, Avenue Q (Co-directed with original Broadway cast member Jen Barnhart), Once Upon a Mattress, A Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum, Young Frankenstein, and The Full Monty. He has music directed Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
David is also an avid performer and has played many roles in musical theatre including Rudolf in Hello, Dolly!, Sister Hubert in Nunsense A-Men, Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods, Rooster in Annie, Emcee, et al in Lucky Stiff, as well as parts in South Pacific, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Fiddler on the Roof.
David’s opera roles include Papageno in The Magic Flute, Marco in Gianni Schicci, Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte, as well as parts in The Bartered Bride, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Don Giovanni.
Throughout the 1980s, David was involved in the Nashville music scene. He was a singer/dancer at Opryland and the Grand Ole Opry, as well as a studio singer and performer at numerous convention venues.