Kiera Smitheram

Music Technician

About

Kiera Smitheram is a proudly Cornish soprano, actor, saxophonist, and writer. She is also a trained music technician and music teacher. Born in the ‘bottom end of nowhere’ on the north coast of Cornwall, Kiera spent her free time amusing herself with music, prose, and drama. After dabbling professionally in radio presenting, Repertory theatre, and scare acting, she found her calling in opera at the age of seventeen in New Cornwall Opera’s “Carmen” at the Minack Theatre. Since then, her appetite for music and theatre has been insatiable.

Outside of her studies, Kiera has performed with numerous companies in the Cornwall and Sussex areas. She has worked extensively with Havant Light Opera, New Sussex Opera, and West Sussex Opera, as well as freelancing as a soloist for numerous choral societies.

In January 2019 she performed the role of The Resistance in Howard Moody’s PUSH: A Holocaust Opera in the Houses of Parliament. For this role she was dubbed, “an absolute powerhouse”. She reprised the role at the Minerva Theatre Chichester in 2020. As Katisha in Havant Light Opera’s “The Mikado” she was hailed as “an explosive young talent” and “One of the best Katishas [I’ve] ever seen”. Since 2020, Kiera has been one of New Sussex Opera’s Developing Artists.

Other roles include: Mabel in “The Pirates of Penzance”, Josephine in “HMS Pinafore”, Flaminio in “The Princess of Trebizonde”, May Queen/Understudy Galatea in “Acis and Galatea” and Jeune Fillein “La Belle Helene”.

In 2021, Kiera retrained during the COVID-19 lockdown as a technician and obtained a position at the University of Chichester Conservatoire. She has been involved in over 100 productions and concerts as a lighting and sound engineer, camera operator, livestream manager, stage manager,
and front of house manager.

As a writer, Kiera has become one of an esteemed group of scholars and academics who specialise in Cornish culture. Her articles cover a wide range of topics, including music, history, and anthropology. She contributes to numerous publications and is in high demand as a researcher, guest speaker, and contributor. She is currently studying for her PhD/MPhil in Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter.