Samara Joy at The Smith Opera House | October 7, 2026

Doors at The Smith Opera House open at 6:30 PM for this one — get there early. Samara Joy and her Septet take the stage at 7:30, and if you have been waiting for the right excuse to make the drive to Geneva, this is it.

Samara Joy grew up in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, the daughter of a musician and granddaughter of gospel singers. She trained at SUNY Purchase, where she won the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition while still a student — a sign, in retrospect, of exactly where her career was headed. In the years since, she has collected five Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist in 2022 and Best Jazz Vocal Album for Portrait in 2026. She has performed at Newport, Monterey, and Montreal Jazz Festivals, Carnegie Hall, and the Village Vanguard. DownBeat calls her “a silky-voiced star.” NPR calls her “a classic jazz singer from a new generation.” The comparisons people reach for — Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln — are high praise, but by this point they feel like she has earned them.

She performs with her Septet, which means the full arrangement, not a stripped-down club set. At a 1,400-seat theater with the acoustic character of The Smith Opera House, that is going to sound very good.

The Smith Opera House has been a Finger Lakes cultural anchor since 1894. The building’s Moorish-inspired interior — complete with a star-lit ceiling — is the kind of room you look up at between songs and feel grateful to be inside. It sits right in downtown Geneva, and parking is free.

Tickets run $39.50–$95. All ages welcome. Box office is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 AM to 4 PM; you can also reach them at (315) 781-5483 or boxoffice@thesmith.org. Buy tickets now.