Recently appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera (SP&O), Finnish-American conductor Ari Pelto is in demand with orchestras, opera houses, and ballet companies throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

In the 2024-2025 season, Pelto will open with the Opera Colorado premiere of Donizetti’s Daughter of the Regiment. Highlights of the season include his debut at the Hamburg State Opera with Eugene Onegin, and several appearances with SP&O where he will conduct works by Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, and Tchaikovsky. Additionally at SP&O, Pelto will collaborate with world-class soloists, including Augustin Hadelich for Brahms' Violin Concerto in D Major and Awadagin Pratt for Jessie Montgomery's Rounds for piano and strings. He will return to Atlanta Ballet this season with Balanchine’s Coppélia and Yuri Possokhov’s innovative production of of The Nutcracker. He recently had an album release of the Opera Colorado world premiere of Gerald Cohen’s Steal a Pencil for Me, based on a true love story set in a concentration camp during World War II.

Since joining Opera Colorado as its first Music Director in 2015, 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. Outside of the repertory staples, Pelto has conducted Opera Colorado's premiere productions of Paul Moravec's The Shining, Korngold’s rarely performed masterwork Die tote Stadt, and led the world premieres of Lori Laitman's The Scarlet Letter (also recorded and released on the Naxos label), and Gerald Cohen’s Steal a Pencil for Me.

Also a masterful collaborator with dancers, Maestro Pelto has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the Atlanta Ballet as Principal Guest Conductor. He conducted Jean-Christophe Maillot's groundbreaking production of Romeo and Juliet and John McFall's production of Prokofiev's Cinderella, as well as leading the company in the world premieres of Twyla Tharp's first story ballet, The Princess and the Goblin, and Helen Pickett's Camino Real.

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 (now Sarasota Orchestra). Pelto has also enjoyed guest appearances with the Kennedy Center Orchestra, The New National Theatre in Tokyo, London's Royal Opera, San Diego Opera, the Florida Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Utah Symphony and Opera, Portland Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. 

Dedicated to musical training for emerging artists, Pelto has be a presence at Wolf Trap Opera, San Francisco Opera, Merola, Chautauqua Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, The Juilliard School, and Curtis Institute of Music. He has served as a regular guest faculty member of the NYU Orchestra and conducted the mainstage operas for Oberlin in Italy for nine years.

Maestro Pelto's musical training includes a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, a Master of Music from Indiana University — where he studied with Imre Pallo — as well as conducting studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.