BIO

Lara Vivian Smith is an anomaly, incorporating elements from her unique background experiences in performing many musical styles to bear her truth. A composer and vocalist since receiving her first piano at age 7, her unique voice is reflected in her own compositions as well as her intimate interpretations of covers and the Great American Songbook. Integrating her Contemporary, Jazz, and Classical training, from a vividly animated story-teller to a profoundly moving ballad and everything in-between, Lara Vivian is a genuinely innovative artist who can really sing it all.

Born in Chicago, she spent her childhood living in a variety of musical climates, from San Diego to London to Anchorage to the small town of Walla Walla, Washington. In all of these places, she was an active member of a wide variety of community choirs and musical ensembles, even deviating from singing briefly to play the Violin in the Anchorage Honors Youth Orchestra. During her summers at Culver Summer Schools & Camps, she fought to be one of the first young women to join the Drum & Bugle Corps and continued on to represent women as a member of the Upper School men’s Naval Band division. Although initially interested in Contemporary and Commercial Musical Styles, she began formal classical voice lessons at age 14. Two years later, an invitation to join the Jazz Ensemble at Walla Walla Community College shifted her focus again and opened her mind and creativity to the jazz world. During this time she began performing regularly in the community as well as performing as a guest with the Walla Walla Valley Jazz Band and in events such as the annual Moonlight Serenade aboard the tallship, The Ledbetter. After dually graduating high-school and community college with her AA, she committed to a career in music and moved to Moscow, Idaho to go to the Lionel Hampton School of Music.

At LHSoM, she graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Classical Voice Performance studying under Pamela Bathurst. In addition to her classical studies, Lara was heavily involved in the Jazz program, continuing to perform in jazz combos and as the vocalist in Jazz Band I for several years. Beyond ensemble work, she studied jazz privately with Vern Sielert and Kate Skinner at the University of Idaho, as well as her dear mentor, Horace Alexander Young, just across the state border at Washington State University. While in school, she won the Outstanding College Vocal Soloist Award twice at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in 2019 & 2020. Outside of academia, Lara gigged regularly within the Moscow/Pullman & Lewiston/Clarkston areas at a variety of venues. As a bandleader, she directed the Lara Vivian Quintet, Idaho Jazz Vandals, and even lead big bands on several occasions.

After her undergraduate degree and amongst a global pandemic, Lara packed up and moved to Las Vegas where she gigs and records as an emerging artist and vocalist. Although the pandemic thwarted plans to record her debut original album Agent Orange before departing the pacific northwest, plans are underway to return and release this project in the near post-pandemic timeline.

Teaching

With several years of private teaching experience, Lara Vivian Smith currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada where she teaches locally and online at-a-distance. Currently she teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas teaching Jazz and Commercial Voice Lessons, Vocal Styles courses, and directing UNLV’s award-winning Jazz and Commercial Vocal Ensembles: Studio Scarlet, Marlyand Parkway, and Harmon Avenue. In addition to her university teaching, she teaches private voice lessons for kids, teenagers, and adults at the Nevada School of the Arts, located in the historic fourth-street school in Las Vegas. She is a highly-qualified voice teacher and voice specialist holding a Masters in Jazz and Commercial Music Performance from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, succeeding her Bachelors in Classical Voice Performance from the Lionel Hampton School of Music. In 2022, she finished her Certification in Vocology from the National Center for Voice and Speech’s Summer Vocology Institute at the the Utah Center for Vocology, University of Utah. Additionally, Lara is certified in the esteemed LoVetri Institute’s Somatic Voicework™ I, II & III, Dr. Trineice Robinson’s Soul Ingredients™ I, and Heather Lyle’s Vocal Yoga™ HLVYM-I. In 2021 she completed the Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah Conservatory, completing work in Bridging Classical to CCM Training; Discovering Your Roots; Inside Out: an Artist's Journey to Authenticity; Musical Theatre Repertoire Intensive; Musical Theatre Styles; Teaching Pop and Rock Styles; Teaching Young Singers; The Fundamentals of Functional Training; The Injured Singing Voice: Tools for Every Singing Teacher; The Vocal Athlete's Guide to Vocal Wellness and Fitness; Training Original Artists; and Voice Science Bootcamp. On top of her avid teaching and performing careers here in Las Vegas, Lara Vivian Smith is a doctoral candidate at Shenandoah Conservatory from where she plans on graduating with her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Pedagogy: Voice Science in 2025. Her current research focuses on the integration and accessibility of singing for all persons, as well as applications beyond the professional vocal schema.

Her experience teaching spans a variety of genres and contexts. Lara has served as a private voice teacher for over half a decade, while also coaching professional performing groups and young artist development ensembles including the Palouse Project, Vinyl Skies, and Siren. Currently teaching at both the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the Nevada School of the Arts, she continues to prioritize the needs of her students modeling student-centered learning and artistic development. Her philosophy of teaching is to “cultivate a safe environment for every unique voice to explore and develop healthy vocal technique directed by the interests of the student”. She has experience performing and teaching within several vocal and musical styles including Contemporary Commercial Music (Pop, R&B, Gospel, Country), Jazz, Classical and Cross-training vocalists, as well as teaching kids and changing voices (adolescent).

Lara is currently accepting limited new students on a case by case basis online, and in-person through the Nevada School of the Arts. For professional coaching and travel-to lessons on set or in-studio, please contact for availability. For information regarding working with her at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, please visit UNLV School of Music website, and follow @unlvjazzcomvocal on Instagram.

Lara Vivian Smith is a member of the Jazz Education Network, The Voice Foundation, Society for Ethnomusicology, Association for Popular Music Education, Pan American Vocology Association, National Association for Teachers of Singing, Somatic Voicework Teachers Association, and Performing Arts Medicine Association.