Finnish-American conductor Ari Pelto is Music Director of Opera Colorado and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera. In demand with orchestras, opera houses, and ballet companies throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, Pelto brings a distinguished command of operatic, symphonic, and dance repertoire to a wide-ranging international career.

Highlights of Pelto’s 2025–2026 season include La traviata and Madama Butterfly with Opera Colorado, where he has served as Music Director since 2015. In Sacramento, he opens the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera season with pianist Jeremy Denk in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, on a program also featuring Verdi’s Nabucco Overture and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1. Additional SP&O highlights include Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with cellist Zlatomir Fung paired with Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 to close the season. Beyond his two artistic homes, Pelto returns to Atlanta Ballet for The Nutcracker, marking twenty-five years since he first conducted the work with the company, as well as Giselle. He also leads Massenet’s Cendrillon at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, collaborating with emerging artists in the composer’s lyric fairy tale.

Since joining Opera Colorado as its first Music Director, Pelto has conducted acclaimed performances of Turandot, Cavalleria rusticana, La traviata, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Aida, La bohème, Falstaff, La fanciulla del West, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lucia di Lammermoor, Pagliacci, and Carmen. He has also played a central role in the company’s commitment to twentieth- and twenty-first-century repertoire, leading Opera Colorado’s premiere productions of Paul Moravec’s The Shining and Korngold’s rarely performed masterwork Die tote Stadt, as well as the world premieres of Lori Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter, recorded and released on the Naxos label, and Gerald Cohen’s Steal a Pencil for Me.

A masterful collaborator with dancers, Pelto has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Atlanta Ballet as Principal Guest Conductor. With the company, he has conducted Jean-Christophe Maillot’s groundbreaking production of Roméo et Juliette and John McFall’s production of Prokofiev’s Cinderella, in addition to leading the world premieres of Twyla Tharp’s first story ballet, The Princess and the Goblin, and Helen Pickett’s Camino Real.

Pelto’s previous conducting appointments include Assistant Conductor of the Spoleto Festival, five seasons as Guest Conductor of New York City Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of Opera Memphis, and Assistant Conductor of the Florida West Coast Symphony, where he conducted more than thirty concerts. He has also appeared with the Kennedy Center Orchestra, New National Theatre Tokyo, Royal Opera, London, San Diego Opera, The Florida Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, Portland Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

Pelto earned his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and his Master of Music from Indiana University, where he studied with Imre Pallo. He also pursued conducting studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.