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Artist Profile
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| Type: | Soprano |
| Genre: | Opera |
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General | | Biography: | The versatile American singer Laura Pedersen brings to opera houses and to concert halls, an exciting lyric soprano voice, beauty and a rare ability to make each role come alive on stage. Mass in G Major for Mid-America Productions. Other orchestral appearances for her have included those with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra and the Lima Symphony Orchestra.
Her debut at Cleveland’s Blossom Festival in 2003, in a program of Foster and Copland songs and excerpts from Verdi’s La Traviata, prompted the Cleveland Plain Dealer critic to enthuse, “she dispatched the music with personality and vocal ease. A very welcome introduction to a lively, charming singer.’” She was then invited back to Cleveland’s Blossom Festival in 2004 and this time the press reported, ” Laura Pedersen was an effervescent personality who sang with bright timbre and glittering coloratura, striking sparks, and showing off her high notes.”
Laura Pedersen spent three years as a soloist with the Bremen Opera in Germany. While there, she appeared in such diverse roles as Maria in Bernstein’s West Side Story directed by English choreographer Rosamund Gilmore, and Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. She also sang the leading role of Marie Laurencin in the world premiere The Banquet composed by Maestro Marcello Panni with libretto by Kenneth Koch; this production was staged by award-winning director David Mouchtar-Samorai.
Other engagements in Germany have included the role of Graziella in the world premiere of Detlev Glanert’s Joseph Suss, as well as performances of Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Carmen, and Die Fledermaus. Ms. Pedersen’s debut as Amour in Gluck’s Orphée caused the critic of the Weser Kurier to declare, “she interpreted with tremendous flair and vocal ease and in full command of her assured stage presence.”
Upon Ms. Pedersen’s return America she repeated a role she first sang in Europe, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, this time for the Cleveland Opera. Of that performance, The Plain Dealer declared, “Ms. Pedersen made a strong case for Donna Elvira as an intelligent but emotionally mixed character, in a complex and moving portrayal.” After her return to the States, her Violetta in La Traviata with the Indianapolis Opera drew immediate attention from both public and press; one music critic wrote that “she sang a well burnished Violetta. dominating all four acts, singing and acting the very difficult role debut superbly.”
This success was followed by an immediate re-engagement with the Indianapolis Opera to sing in the company’s first production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. In her debut as Juliette, Laura Pedersen gave a “dramatic interpretation blended with passion, humanity, intelligence, and depth” according to the Indianapolis Star.
An Iowa native, Laura Pedersen earned a Master’s Degree in Voice on scholarship at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and she has participated in concerts sponsored by the Richard Tucker Foundation. She now coaches with Renata Scotto and studies voice with Bill Schuman in New York City.
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