Jason Barry-Smith is an exceptionally versatile artist whose intelligent musicality is admired in music from Bach to Barry Conyngham. He has become a familiar and commanding presence on the Australasian operatic and music theatre stage and as a singing teacher and educator.

His operatic and music theatre roles include Enjolras in Les Miserables, Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, Geoffrey Hargrave in Lawrence Hargrave Flying Alone, the title role of Don Giovanni (for which he won a National Opera Award), the Boatswain and Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore, Eisenstein and Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Escamillo, Dancairo and Morales in Carmen, Dr Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Marullo in Rigoletto, Mathieu in Andrea Chenier, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Tony in West Side Story, Shaunard in La Boheme, Mercutio in Romeo et Juliette and Belcore in L’Elisir D’Amore. He has created the roles of Julian in the world premiere of Anthony Richie’s comic opera Quartet and Samuel in Barry Conyngham’s Electric Lenin, and also performed the role of Mamoud in the Australasian premiere of John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer.

He has conducted and arranged for the Queensland Pops Orchestra, The Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols (televised on Channel 7), Carols in the City (televised on Channel 9), and the Queensland Youth Choir; and composed new works for Imogen Chorale and VoiceWorks that have received international premieres.

Jason is also a much admired singing teacher and many of his students, including The Veronicas and members of The Ten Tenors, are working in the music industry both nationally and internationally, and works regularly with cast members of touring musicals while they are in Brisbane. He was one of the few Australian singing teachers whose thoughts on singing technique were published in American voice pedagogue Joan Melton’s book - Singing in Musical Theatre: The Training of Singers and Actors.

His discography includes the DVDs of The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore and the CD Songs of Inspiration with the Queensland Pops Orchestra all on ABC Classics; and two CDs with the Queensland Youth Choir: one of Ariel Ramirez’s Missa Criolla and Navidad Nuestra and the other, New Leaves, includes Jason conducting his own musical setting of The 23rd Psalm.

As well as keeping a very busy performance schedule, Jason holds the positions of Sessional Voice Teacher at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, and Director of the Young and Developing Artist Program at Opera Queensland.