Music-loving Texans, the UT community, and opera lovers all over the world mourn the loss of mezzo-soprano and UT alumna Barbara Smith Conrad, who passed away from complications of Alzheimer's disease on May 22, 2017.

Born into a musical family in 1940 in Center Point, Texas, Ms. Smith Conrad would become one of the first African-American students to matriculate at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1957 she was cast in a UT production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas as Queen Dido opposite a white Aeneas, the queen's lover. The resulting controversy reached the Texas legislature, and the president of the university was advised to remove her from the production. The event was covered by the national media, and brought Ms. Smith Conrad to the attention of singer Harry Belafonte, who offered to pay her way to complete her studies at the school of her choice. Ms. Smith Conrad chose to remain at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree in 1959.

Her operatic career took her to stages all over the world: she performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and many other major opera houses throughout the United, States, Canada, South America, and Europe.

“Creativity is everything... I have to do it, because that's who I am,” Ms. Smith Conrad said in the documentary on her life called When I Rise, a production of PBS's Independent Lens. In 2009, the Texas State Legislature passed a resolution honoring her.

KMFA sends their deepest sympathies to Ms. Smith Conrad's friends and family.