About

Young British soprano Sumei Bao-Smith is in regular demand as a soloist and choral singer across the UK and abroad. She is a recent graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, where she studied French and Spanish alongside a Choral Scholarship in the world-leading chapel choir, and is now based in London.

Sumei is a Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist for the ’25/’26 season, and was a Brighton Early Music Festival Emerging Artist ’24/’25 and Sestina Next Generation Young Artist ’24/’25. ’25/’26 solo highlights include Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (Collegium Musicum of London), Haydn's The Creation (Knebworth Community Chorus) Handel’s Messiah (East Sussex Bach Choir), Handel’s Let God Arise and Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 (The Occasional Singers). Sumei was recently selected for Collegium Vocale Gent’s Bach Masterclass 2026, studying with Phillipe Herreweghe and Peter Kooij, culminating in a performance at Concertgebouw Brugge. Recent solo highlights include Bach’s St John Passion (Music for Awhile), Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Three Spires Singers), Orff’s Carmina Burana (BBC National Chorus of Wales, Brecon Choir Festival), Filia in Carissimi’s Jephte (Brighton Early Music Festival), Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (East Sussex Bach Choir), Cupid in Purcell’s King Arthur (Eastbourne Choral Society), Rutter’s Requiem (Cambridge Alumni Festival), and Finzi’s In terra pax (Cambridge Symphony Chorus, East Anglia Chamber Orchestra). Her operatic roles include Eurydice Orphée aux enfers, Adele Die Fledermaus, Lucia The Rape of Lucretia, and Cupid Venus and Adonis. Whilst at Cambridge, Sumei was fortunate to be a Sir Arthur Bliss Lieder Scheme Scholar '21/'22 and '23/'24, through which she received regular art song coaching from Joseph Middleton and masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Mark Padmore and Nicky Spense.

Equally at home on the choral platform, recent and upcoming engagements include concerts, tours and recordings with Arcangelo, BBC Singers, The Tallis Scholars, The English Concert, Polyphony, VOCES8 Foundation, Chamber Choir Ireland, Cambridge Singers, London Choral Sinfonia, SANSARA, Vox Urbane, The Carice Singers, Corvus Consort, Recordare Chamber Choir and US-based Ensemble Altera, amongst others. She features as a soloist on recordings with Ensemble Altera, London Choral Sinfonia, Corvus Consort, Continuum, Accordare Choir, and The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, to critical acclaim.

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"“The Blue Bird” by Charles Villiers Stanford, one of the only selections from the night not penned by a contemporary composer, featured soloist Sumei Bao-Smith. Bao-Smith’s lush accentuations made the arduous seem facile. Reflecting the theme of this segment, Bao-Smith’s enchanting voice moved like a minute wave that enveloped itself through delicate swells. The program notes mention that this song “captures a moment of still water transformed by a sudden visitation. The lake lies ‘cold and still’ until the blue bird passes overhead, its reflection touching the surface.” This was not unlike Smith’s voice hovering within reach of the audience to quicken the stillness of the moment."

The Boston Musical Intelligencer