FARMINGTON – Doug Bradford Smith, a native of Farmington, will give a tribute concert to famed opera diva Lillian Nordica at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at Nordica Auditorium on the University of Farmington campus.

Born in 1857, Nordica became the opera sensation of Europe at age 20. For 35 years, she sustained a brilliant operatic career. In 1911, a year before her death, she returned to her hometown and gave a concert in the auditorium that has since been named for her.

Smith, who now resides in New York City, grew up on the Holley Road across the street from the Nordica Homestead. When he was a senior at Mt. Blue High School, his parents, Marion and Phil Smith, became the caretakers of the Nordica Homestead Museum, and the family moved into Nordica’s birthplace.

“I always loved that house,” Smith said. “It was a magical place to live, and my parents called it home for 16 years.

Smith studied acting at New York University-Tisch School of the Arts and later worked in theaters in and around New York, along the East Coast and in Florida. He founded “Frontline Productions,” an off-off-Broadway theater company, where he has acted, directed and received critical acclaim for his direction of “The Captive.”

He later studied opera and classical singing and has sung with the Amato Opera in the roles of Zuniga in “Carmen,” Dr. Grenvil in “La Traviata,” and San Brioche in “The Merry Widow.”

He is now rehearsing a performance of Haydn’s “Lord Nelson’s Mass,” as bass soloist with the New York Cantata Singers.

The Oct. 27 concert will feature art and popular songs recorded by Nordica, a song Smith wrote about Nordica and a song written by Nordica. Smith will also sing Wagner’s “Leb-Wohl (Wotan’s Farewell) from “Die Walkure,” which Nordica requested be sung at the funeral (but could not be arranged at the time).

Farmington soprano Jane Parker will sing “Ho-jo-to-ho” from “The Valkyrie,” a signature piece of Nordica’s from her celebrated role of Brunnhilde. Hannah Sloan-Barton, a Mt. Blue High School senior, will play a violin solo of Massenet’s “Meditation,” a favorite of Nordica’s from the opera “Thais,” and an obbligato written especially for Nordica’s song “Enduring Love.”