Yvonne Smith
Director
At age nine when her family was living in upstate New York, Yvonne Smith chose to learn to play the viola because of its rich, dark sound, its supporting role in ensembles … and her acute distaste for high notes, which would have been inevitable, had she chosen to play the violin. Her love for the viola grew throughout her childhood years and several cross-country moves, and she eventually grew to tolerate and even embrace high notes.
Yvonne was first introduced to early music as a teenager when she heard and fell in love with a recording of Corelli’s violin concerti by Philharmonia Baroque. She began seriously pursuing historical performance shortly after completing her modern viola performance degrees from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University (B.Mus’13, M.Mus’ 15). While at Rice, she studied with James Dunham and Joan DerHovsepian.
In addition to performing with and directing La Speranza, Yvonne enjoys a full schedule as a performing and teaching artist on both modern and baroque viola. In the 2023-24 season, she will appear as soloist and as a member of Lyra Baroque (Minneapolis, MN) and American Bach Soloists (San Francisco, CA). She also has a thriving viola studio of private students ranging from age 8 to adult and will be a contracted substitute in the Houston Symphony viola section. Yvonne’s baroque viola was made by Timothy Johnson in 2017 after a viola by Andrea Guarneri, made in 1676.
Yvonne’s goal, whenever she plays, is to bring her colleagues and her audience the joy she experiences from making music. Particularly when she performs on her baroque viola, she loves experiencing the connection to the past and partnering with her colleagues in bringing it to the present for their audience.
Sarah Paysnick, Bookkeeper
La Speranza Board of Directors
Michael Brown, President
Kathleen Staten, Secretary
Larry Eshelman, Treasurer
Marcel Wormsley
Eileen McGovern