With performances that have been called poetic, earthy, vigorous and highly individual, conductor Ari Pelto is in demand in opera houses throughout the United States. Since his debut in 2004 conducting Verdi's La Traviata at the New York City Opera, Mr. Pelto has been engaged as a regular guest conductor for the company, Conducting Madama Butterfly, Carmen and La Boheme in subsequent seasons. Highlights from his most recent season include Romeo et Juliet at Minnesota Opera, Magic Flute at Portland Opera, La Boheme at Boston Lyric Opera and the Cunning Little Vixen at Chautauqua.

Mr. Pelto works regularly at some of the country's most prestigious conservatories and young artists' programs. In 2005 he conducted Don Giovanni at Wolf Trap and returned in 2006 to conduct a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro. At San Francisco Opera's Merola Program he conducted Benjamin Britten's Rape of Lucretia in 2004. He has conducted operas at the Oberlin and San Francisco Conservatories, the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.  He has also been engaged as a regular faculty member and conductor at the New National Theatre in Tokyo where in the spring of 2008 he conducted Le Nozze di Figaro.

Mr. Pelto spent the fall of 2002 conducting 30 performances of La Boheme in 20 states with the Western Opera Theater (San Francisco Opera's national touring company), after bringing Cosi Fan Tutte to 21 states the previous year. In 1999 he made his international debut in Germany with the Bochumer Symphoniker, and the same year conducted Lucia di Lammermoor at the Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, CA, returning the next year to lead Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He returned to Festival Opera in 2006 to conduct Tosca. In recent seasons he has had repeat engagements with the Florida Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony, and the Atlanta Ballet.

At age 24 he became Assistant Conductor of the Spoleto Festival USA, where he led symphonic and chamber orchestra programs to critical acclaim and was responsible for the musical preparation of productions of Fidelio, Janacek's Excursions of Mr. Broucek, and Britten's Curlew River. From 2000-2002 he served as Assistant Conductor of the Florida West Coast Symphony in Sarasota, FL, conducting over 30 concerts there.

Mr. Pelto has had the good fortune to work with a number of the world's finest teachers of conducting including Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, and Mendi Rodan. At the Indiana University School of Music he studied with the eminent conductor Imre Pallo. While pursuing his degree there, he also served as Assistant Conductor of the Opera Theater, where he led many performances including those of Don Pasquale, the Marriage of Figaro, Idomeneo, Orpheus in the Underworld, and Falstaff.

He holds a degree in violin performance from Oberlin Conservatory, and has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral violinist in Europe, China, and throughout the United States.