American soprano Laura Pinto has captured the attention of audiences in the U.S. and Canada for her exuberant stage presence, innate musicality, and thoughtful interpretations of vocal music in a wide range of styles.
On the operatic stage, Ms. Pinto recently made her debut as a principal artist with Sugar Creek Opera as Adele (Die Fledermaus). She has performed a variety of other roles, including Poppea (Agrippina, Handel), #1 [Princess] (Transformations, Susa), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Phyllis (Iolanthe, Gilbert & Sullivan), Le Rossignol (L’enfant et les sortilèges, Ravel) and Maria (West Side Story). She received “special kudos” for her performance of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, in which her “beautiful arietta ‘O mio babbino caro’ was literally a showstopper” (Classical Voice of North Carolina).
An early music specialist, Ms. Pinto made her debut with the Newberry Consort in 2015 on a program of early Polish music. She has performed in productions of Dido and Aeneas with the McGill Chamber Orchestra and the Haymarket Opera Company, directed by renowned artists Daniel Taylor and Ellen Hargis, respectively. Ms. Pinto’s recital “Jewels of the Crown: Musical Gems from the Courts of 17th-Century Europe” with viola da gambist David Ellis was enthusiastically received in multiple performances throughout the Midwest.
Ms. Pinto also brings a varied palette of vocal and dramatic colors to her performances of chamber music, art song, and oratorio. She was recently a guest soloist on Mozart’s C Minor Mass with the Chicagoland ensemble The Tower Chorale, under the baton of Patrick Godon. With Chicago’s VOX 3 Collective, she performed the coloratura soprano solo in Respighi’s Lauda per la Natività del Signore. Her performed repertoire also includes Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and soprano soli in the Poulenc Gloria, Schubert Mass in G, Haydn’s The Creation, and Handel’s Messiah.
Ms. Pinto frequently performs contemporary music and enjoys collaborating with living composers. In March 2010, she performed alongside composer Christian Kesten in the Canadian premieres of his piece Zunge lösen and of Dieter Schnebel’s Kopfschütteln and Redeübungen für Hand und Mund as part of Montreal’s Musimars festival. She has also worked closely with emerging composer and former Fulbright Fellow Jason Thorpe Buchanan, whose songs she has performed in Brevard, North Carolina and in Chicago. In March 2011, she performed the world premiere of Nicholas Esterer’s FIG-NUN-WIG-LINES for soprano and computer in Montreal.
Ms. Pinto trained as a young artist with the Janiec Opera Company (Brevard Music Center), Sugar Creek Opera, and the Centro Studi Italiani Opera Festival (Oberlin in Italy). She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from DePaul University and a Master of Music in Opera from McGill University. Her mentors include Sanford Sylvan, Patrick Hansen, Harry Silverstein, Elsa Charlston, and Helen Todd. Ms. Pinto currently resides in the Chicago area with her husband and son.
