Linda Larson

Soprano Linda Larson has been praised for her engaging stage presence and audience connection, as well as her thoughtful music interpretation. Her operatic experiences bring a dramatic element to all of her performances: she 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. Favorite roles are Musetta in La Boheme and the title role in Floyd’s Susannah; she has enjoyed tragic death onstage as Gilda, Violetta, and Hoffmann’s Antonia; her characters on the lighter side include Susanna, Fiordiligi, Gretel, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance, both Rosalinda and Adele in Fledermaus, and others.

Recognized for her commitment to new American music, Linda has performed several pieces of composer John Eaton, including the world premiere of his opera Pumped Fiction at the 2007 American Composers Alliance Festival. She has sung with Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Ensemble X, Brooklyn New Music Collective, Encompass New Opera Theatre, and Voices of Change, and has performed new music at the Bowdoin International and Chintimini Chamber Music Festivals. Composer David Glaser, American Academy of Arts and Letters award-winner, wrote Moonset No. 1 for her; and in February Linda premiered chamber music of Cynthia Lee Wong at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall with harpist Irantzu Agirre and others. She has recently sung music of Tom Cipullo, Norbert Palej, Robert X. Rodriguez, David Heuser, Philip Lasser, John Harbison, and Dan Welcher, among others.

In January 2008 Linda sang a recital as part of the Three Seasons Chamber Music series’ inaugural season, performing music of Schumann, Debussy, and Berg. She has also 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. She sang Cantata at Symphony Space's Wall-to-Wall Stravinsky Festival; other recent concert engagements include Messiah, Dvorak Stabat Mater, Schubert Mass in A-flat, Mendelssohn Elijah. and Beethoven Missa Solemnis.

A native of Corvallis, Oregon, Linda holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Texas at Austin. Honored as regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, she is a graduate of the Tri-Cities Opera Resident Artist Training Program, and participated in the Twentieth Century Opera and Song program at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Formerly coordinator of Vocal Coaching Program at Cornell University, she is now on the faculty at New York University.