Copious Notes

If musicians are in need of a little money, the card they always have in their back pocket is the ability to put on a show.

Reginald Smith Jr. in a rehearsal last fall for River of Time. Copyrighted photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

And that’s the card University of Kentucky opera singer Reginald Smith Jr. is playing this Sunday to support his studies this summer at the Seagle Music Colony in upstate New York. Area music fans would recognize Smith for roles such as Falke in last spring’s production of Die Fledermaus or Billy the Barber in last fall’s world premier production of A River of Time. He first caught audiences attention his freshman year at UK when he was the baritone soloist in the Lexington Philharmonic and Lexington Singers presentation of Handel’s Messiah.

Smith is presenting a concert of music from classical favorites to Broadway to African-American spirituals to raise the $1,500 he needs for airfare and tuition to the Albany festival, where he will perform roles in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, Broadway classics Hello Dolly and Carousel and vespers concerts.

Smith’s concert is at 3 p.m. June 6 at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd. Admission is free but donations are, of course, welcome.