The Scottish mezzo-soprano Laura Margaret Smith was the Scottish Opera Robertson Scholarship Trust Emerging Artist, 2014–15. Smith studied music at the University of Edinburgh before graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Alexander Gibson Opera School, where she studied under Clare Shearer. Smith now studies with Patricia MacMahon, and holds a Making Music Award for Young Concert Artists and a Musicians’ Benevolent Fund Postgraduate Performance Award.

Smith was selected to participate in 2013 in the prestigious Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto in Italy, where she sang in masterclasses with Dennis O’Neill, Richard Bonynge, Luciana Serra and Daniela Dessi. She has also sung in masterclasses with Roderick Williams, Elly Ameling (Leeds Lieder and Festival), Dame Felicity Palmer, Jane Eaglen, Lisa Milne, Florian Boesch (BBC, Glasgow City Halls) and Malcolm Martineau (Edinburgh International Festival). Smith is also a Samling Artist and Britten–Pears Young Artist, and has pursued further studies with Sir Thomas Allen, Ann Murray DBE and Ian Partridge.