Hailed as "phenomenal" by The Harvard Crimson, "impressively epic" by schwäbische.de, and praised for his "wine-dark bass" by The Boston Globe, bass-baritone Mikhail Smigelski enjoys a diverse and illustrious career in various musical genres, including opera, oratorio, early music, musical theatre, and contemporary music. As a vocal soloist, Smigelski has graced the world's most prestigious stages, including Carnegie Hall, Saint Petersburg's and Moscow's Philharmonic Halls, Berliner Philharmonie, and Kölner Philharmonie. He has collaborated with numerous European and American opera, musical theatre, concert companies, and festivals, such as Saint Petersburg Chamber Opera, Theater Aachen, Theater Solingen, Theater Leverkusen, Cohen New Works Festival, New York Ferus Festival, East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Austin Symphony, Opera Leggera, Opera in the Heights, Miami Lyric Opera, The Cleveland Opera, and others.

 From the beginning of his professional journey, Mikhail Smigelski toured Russia, Europe, and the United States not only as an opera singer but also as part of various vocal ensembles, a conductor, and a collaborative pianist. His operatic portrayals include over 30 roles, encompassing characters like Figaro and Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Ferrando in Il Trovatore, Nikitich and Varlaam in Boris Godunov, and the title roles in Falstaff and Eugene Onegin, among others. Mikhail Smigelski is a passionate advocate for contemporary classical music and has participated in several world and USA premieres, including performances of works like "Switch" by John Aylward with the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, "Golden" by Michael Zapruder at Cohen New Works Festival, and "Orpheus" by Evan Lawson with Density 512. As a recording artist, Smigelski has released two CD albums: "Russian Gems," a collection of art songs by Pavel Chesnokov and Alexander Grechaninov (KNS Classical, 2021), and "Mayn Shprach: Yiddish Art Songs by Lazar Weiner“ (Ladoga Records, 2023).

Dr. Smigelski began his musical studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance. Subsequently, he completed a Master of Music degree in opera performance at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, Germany. After relocating to the United States, he obtained a Master of Music degree in choral conducting at Sam Houston State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in opera performance at the University of Texas at Austin.

In addition to his performance career, Dr. Smigelski serves as a Lecturer in Voice at The University of Texas at Austin, a Music Director at the Houston-based musical theatre company Opera Leggera, a Vice President of Classical Auditions for the Greater Houston chapter of NATS, and a founder and director of the recording label Lagoda Records.