Linda Larson – Past Concerts

Corvallis native Linda Larson is delighted to be returning for this year's Chintimini Chamber Music Festival. Linda has sung leading operatic roles throughout the United States with companies including New York City Opera National Company, Opera Illinois, Syracuse Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Indianapolis Opera, and Opera Memphis.

Recognized for her commitment to new American music, Linda performed many pieces of microtonalist composer John Eaton, including the world premieres of his operas Pumped Fiction, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Rerouted. Linda premiered chamber music of Cynthia Lee Wong at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. She has sung with Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Ensemble X, Brooklyn New Music Collective, Encompass New Opera Theatre, Voices of Change, and Bowdoin International Chamber Music Festival.

Linda has been featured in concert and recital at the Chautauqua Institute, with the Syracuse Symphony, New Texas Festival, Umpqua Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble, and Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and as part of Symphony Space's Wall-to-Wall Stravinsky Festival. She has taught at Cornell University, New York University, Ithaca College, and Appalachian State University.

While growing up in Corvallis, Linda studied voice with Gwen Leonard and Karen Knutson, and piano with Becky Jeffers and Bea Miller. She also played harpsichord with Figs and Thistles, a local chamber music group, while attending Corvallis High School. Linda now splits her time between Boone, North Carolina and Missoula, Montana. She and her husband Bill Pelto (who also has Corvallis roots) are avid travelers, hikers, and skiers, and play piano duets almost every day. Linda has recently taken up the ukulele.