Bio
Hailed as “one of the loveliest voices in the Northwest” (Oregon ArtsWatch), contralto Laura Beckel Thoreson enjoys a widely varied singing career in the USA and abroad, spanning opera, oratorio, recital, and ensemble performances.
Praised for her warm, rich tone quality, sensitive musicality, and compelling stage presence, Ms. Beckel Thoreson has appeared as a solo guest artist with such groups as Portland Opera, Eugene Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Augusta Opera, Early Music Vancouver, Oregon Symphony, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Cappella Romana, Oregon Sinfonietta, Newport Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Seattle, Naples Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, San Juan Symphony, and more, and has performed internationally in Canada, England, Scotland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Beckel Thoreson has performed as a soloist in many concert works, including Bach's B Minor Mass, Magnificat, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and numerous cantatas, Händel's Dixit Dominus, Judas Maccabeus and Messiah, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Requiem, and Solemn Vespers, Part’s Missa Syllabica and Passio, Purcell's Thy Word is a Lantern, Prokofiev's The Ugly Duckling, Respighi's Laud to the Nativity, Schubert's Mass in A Flat, Vivaldi's Gloria, and many, many more.
Opera roles include Tisbe (Rossini's La Cenerentola), The Mother (Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors), Ursule (Berlioz' Beatrice et Bénédict), Zulma (Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri), Nefertiti (Philip Glass' Akhnaten), the Old Lady (Bernstein's Candide), La Zia Principessa (Puccini's Suor Angelica), Jo March (Adamo's Little Women), Orfeo (Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice), Suzy (Puccini's La Rondine) and Dido (Purcell's Dido and Aeneas). Opera scenes--prepared under the tutelage of world-renowned soprano Carol Vaness--include Dame Quickly (Verdi's Falstaff), Adalgisa (Bellini's Norma), Hansel (Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel), Nerone (Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea), Rosina (Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Suzuki (Puccini's Madama Butterfly).
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Ms. Beckel Thoreson enjoys performing recitals in a wide variety of musical genres, including classical art song, early and new music, musical theater, and jazz. In 2017, Ms. Beckel Thoreson, along with soprano Arwen Myers and pianist Susan McDaniel, launched Northwest Art Song, an organization celebrating and promoting the art of the song recital in the Pacific Northwest. Along with her fellow NWAS members, Ms. Beckel Thoreson has appeared on All-Classical 89.9's Thursdays at Three radio program multiple times, and at Portland's Friends of Chamber Music and Friends of Music events.
A great advocate for new music, Ms. Beckel Thoreson recently performed the world premiere of Pacific Northwest composer Stacey Phillips' new song cycle Pluviosity, along with Delgani string quartet. In 2017, she premiered Teresa Koon's song cycle, Songs of God and Laughter, for mezzo-soprano, trumpet, and four-hand piano. In 2016, she recorded two new works with Fifth House Ensemble by Grammy-nominated jazz pianist and composer J.J. Wright at the University of Notre Dame. She has also recorded Don Freund's Medicine Wheel, a duet cycle for soprano and mezzo-soprano written for Ms. Beckel Thoreson, soprano Arwen Myers, and Native American flautist and former principal flautist of the Philadelphia Orchestra James Pellerite. Ms. Thoreson has enjoyed appearing as a soloist with the IU New Music Ensemble (Eric Lindsay's award-winning Piano) and Contemporary Vocal Ensemble (Arvo Pärt's Missa Syllabica), in addition to other contemporary music groups.
A great choral music enthusiast, Ms. Beckel Thoreson has been a member of several professional choral ensembles, including The Kammerbach Ensemble, Aguava New Music Studio, Apollo's Voice, Vox Reflexa, Prometheus, and Portland-based Cappella Romana, Resonance Ensemble, Trinity Chamber Singers, and The Ensemble of Oregon. She has had the pleasure of performing with several high-level choirs throughout her career, including Cappella Romana, The Ensemble of Oregon, Apollo’s Fire, Indiana University's Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and University Singers and early music ensemble Pro Arte Singers. Ms. Thoreson has sung with the cathedral choir at St. Mary's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, OR, and with Collegium Musicum at St. James Proto-Cathedral in Vancouver, WA, and Northminster Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, IN.
In addition, Ms. Beckel Thoreson has worked as a recording artist with AireBorn Studios in Indianapolis, recording demos for Boosey and Hawkes, Hal Leonard, and other major music publishers, and with Dynamic Catholic and Oregon Catholic Press. Her recordings have appeared in the Top 10 on the Billboard Classical charts.
Ms. Beckel Thoreson has been fortunate to work with such illustrious conductors, directors, coaches, and teachers as Arthur Fagen, Monica Huggett, Craig Jessop, Raymond Leppard, George Manahan, Kevin Noe, Robert Porco, Michael Ehrman, Candace Evans, Carol Vaness, Gary Arvin, Kevin Murphy, Timothy Noble, Patricia Wise, Paul Kiesgen, David Jones, and Dr. Julia Nielsen.
Ms. Beckel Thoreson is a Performer Diploma candidate at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she received her Master of Music in Voice, studying under Distinguished Professor Timothy Noble. She completed her Bachelor of Music in Voice at Central Washington University, as a student of Diane Thueson Reich.
A graduate of Central Washington University and Indiana University’s prestigious Jacobs School of Music, Ms. Beckel Thoreson was a member of the voice faculty at the University of Portland for four years, and now holds a faculty position at Clark College in her hometown of Vancouver, WA, where she also maintains a private voice studio. Ms. Beckel Thoreson is an enthusiastic member of both NATS (the National Association of Teachers of Singing) and MTNA (Music Teachers National Association), and is a frequent clinician and adjudicator for choral programs, festivals, and vocal competitions throughout the Northwest. She is also a proud member of AGMA (the American Guild of Musical Artists).