ERNST DANIEL SMID

Ernst Daniël Smid

Ernst Daniël Smid is a romantic baritone who became nationally famous with his role in the musical Les Misérables and as a presenter of classical music programmes on radio and television. He sings in operas, oratorios, operettas and musicals in the Netherlands and abroad. Smid is active in charitable organizations.
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bariton

Mentioned in the biography of

1968   Promenade Orkest
1987   Joke de Kruijf
1996   Denise Jannah
1996   Marco Bakker
2006   Thomas Berge
2011   Cristina Deutekom
2012   Fluitsma & Van Tijn
2012   Wolter Kroes
2012   Yes-R
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Biography Ernst Daniël Smid

Ernst Daniël Smid is a romantic baritone who became nationally famous with his role in the musical Les Misérables and as a presenter of classical music programmes on radio and television. He sings in operas, oratorios, operettas and musicals in the Netherlands and abroad. Smid is active in charitable organizations. He is the creator of the TV programme Una Voce Particulare.

1953

Ernst Daniël Smid is born in Enschede, the sixth of nine children.

1968

As a member of the Notenkrakers revue company, based in the Achterhoek region of Gelderland, he performs throughout the Netherlands. With his brother Nando, he sings the famous duet 'Au fond du temple saint' from Georges Bizet's opera 'The Pearlfishers'.

1971

Smid joins the Operette Vereniging Winterswijk [Winterswijk Operetta Society]. In his first performance he sings in 'La vie parisienne' by Jacques Offenbach, directed by Anneke van der Graaf. She and her partner Harry France encourage him to take singing lessons. Van der Graaf coaches Smid for a year and presses him to enrol in the Amsterdam Conservatory.

1975 - 1978

Smid is accepted at the Amsterdam Conservatory. He studies singing with Erna Spoorenberg and movement with Max Dooijes, a former dancer with 'Het Ballet der Lage Landen'.

1977

On April 7 Smid makes his debut with De Nederlandse Opera Stichting in Verdi's 'Don Carlos' as one of the Flemish Deputies. On November 9 he sings the role of Goffredo in Vincenzo Bellini's 'Il Pirate', also with the Opera Stichting.

1978

Smid is engaged by the Städtbundtheater Hof in Bavaria. His first role there is Mefisto in Charles Gounod's opera Faust. His subsequent roles there include Germont (La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi), Mama Agata (a female impersonation role in 'Viva la mama' by Gaetano Donizetti), Barbier ('Il barbiere di Siviglia' by Gioachino Rossini), Eugene Onegin ('Eugene Onegin' by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), Figaro ('Le nozze di Figaro' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), Onkel Chang ('Land des Lächelns' by Franz Léhar), Lazar Wolf ('Anatevka' by Jerry Boch), and Frank in Johann Stauss' 'Die Fledermaus'. While in Hof, Smid develops a friendship with Winnifred Wagner and through her receives a scholarship to the Bayreuth Festival. He ends the friendship shortly after when Wagner refuses to greet his Jewish co-performer.

1979

Smid wins the Prijs van der Rotterdamse Kunststichting with his performance of Robert Schumann's 'Dichterliebe'.

1980

Smid sings for the Wuppertaler Bühnen. He performs there in about 30 larger and smaller roles, including Donner in 'Das Rheingold' and Wolfam in 'Tannhäuser' (Richard Wagner), Don Giovanni in Mozart's similarly titled opera, Falke in 'Die Fledermaus' (Johann Strauss), and Silvio on Ruggero Leoncavallo's 'Pagliacci'.

1984

With the Wuppertaler Bühnen, he performs in Warsaw in Dmitri Shostakovich's 'The Gamblers'.

1985

Starting in this year, he sings in oratorios in various European cities.

1991

Smid plays Javert in the musical 'Les misérables', which within two years has 407 performances. Then in 'Sweeney Todd', he plays the Demon Barber of Fleet Street opposite Simone Kleinsma.

1992

Smid is awarded the Zilveren Harp for his first solo CD with Dutch chansons and songs.

Jan Rietman

1995

In a Royal Ballet of Flanders production, he plays Captain von Trapp in 'The Sound of Music'. The production has 300 performances.

1998

The TROS broadcasting company produces a new TV programme about classical music called 'Una voce particolare' with Smid as the presenter. Episodes of the programme have up to 1.2 million viewers.

2001

Radio 4 begins the 'Ernst Daniël' programme.

2005

At the 25th-anniversary celebration of Queen Beatrix's reign held at the Malieveld in The Hague, Smid sings the Dutch national anthem, the 'Wilhelmus'.

2006

He sings the title role in Verdi's 'Nabucco' at the RAI in Amsterdam.

2007

He sings the role of Iago in Verdi's 'Otello' at the RAI in Amsterdam.

2008

On the occasion of Smids' 30th anniversary as a performer, Queen Beatrix makes him a Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau. He gives two concerts with Henk Poort and Marco Bakker at the Carré theatre in Amsterdam, marking a new beginning of 'The Three Baritones', who first performed in the 1990s on Ivo Niehe's TV Gala. In November, Smid becomes the first Dutch ambassador of the Hear the World Foundation, an organization that works to prevent and provide solutions for hearing problems.

2009

During the 50-Plus Fair at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, Smid presents 'Concerto Particolare' four times. Each of the four shows, with talented soloists from his TV show and a 15-member orchestra, draws an audience of 3,000.

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