Master Co-director Carol Smolenski joined her first barbershop chorus in 1994 and hasn’t stopped since!  MVA has been her barbershop home since 1999, and she served as bass section leader, assistant director, and associate director prior to taking the co-directing helm together with Sally Jeffery in 2021. Carol is an experienced chorus and quartet bass, and she coaches individuals, quartets, and choruses around the Northeast. She has served as clinician for the Voices of the (603) A Cappella Festival and at the Lakes Region Barbershop Festival. She coaches voice and provides music therapy for Merrimack Valley Community Music School in Andover, MA.

Carol is a board-certified Music Therapist, working in hospice care as well as with seniors in long-term care,assisted living and dementia day programs. She loves using music to meet the social, emotional, and physical needs of her clients. Her focus is on using client singing to support speech and communication, respiratory health, physical stamina, and social engagement. In 2021, she completed a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and music therapy. She also holds a master’s in education and a bachelor’s in developmental psychology.

Carol has performed in a wide range of musical styles - madrigals and do wop, classical chorales and Jewish folk music, rock and showtunes, jazz and the American songbook – and brings all that musical variety to her barbershop singing and coaching. Whether in music therapy or in barbershop, her passion lies in helping others find, explore, and expand their own unique voices.

Carol lives in Salem, NH, with her husband, Paul, and her adult children David, Sarah, and Daniel.