About Voce Moderna

Collaborative pianist Blair Salter is a versatile performer and music director who has worked at prestigious opera companies and young artist programs throughout the United States and Canada. A graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Young Artist Program, Wolf Trap Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival, Blair is currently a member of the music staff at Santa Fe Opera and joined the music faculty at Penn State University in 2021.

Blair has worked on staff at Houston Grand Opera, Opera Colorado, Michigan Opera Theatre, Sewanee WinterFest Opera Intensive, and the CoOPERAtive Program. Her extensive recital credits include a program of music curated for the HGO Recital Series at Rienzi, which featured a commissioned set of songs by Jamie Leidwinger. Other performances include recitals with Cincinnati Song Initiative, a mini-recital for the Sam Houston State University Art Song Festival with frequent collaborator Amy Petrongelli, a residency on Performance Today with tubist Cristina Cutts, and her debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., accompanying students from the University of Michigan. She has participated in and performed at multiple conferences, including: the New Works Forum at Opera America in New York City, the African American Song Alliance Conference in Irvine, California, the Song of America Conference in partnership with the Hampsong Foundation’s Song in Dialogue, and at the NATS National Conference in Las Vegas.

An advocate of contemporary music, Blair has appeared in residency at the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, and with the Khemia Ensemble at Michigan State University, Tufts University and the Avaloch Farms Music Institute. She has also worked on several operatic world premieres, including Lord of Cries and The Thirteenth Child at Santa Fe Opera, and The Phoenix and El Milagro del Recuerdo at Houston Grand Opera.

Blair was a freelance collaborative pianist and coach in Toronto from 2012 – 2014, where she acted as music director for Metro Youth Opera, music director with the Halifax Summer Opera Festival, and as pianist with Toronto Opera Repertoire. She attended the University of Western Ontario for her Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance and Master of Music degree in collaborative piano, studying with John Hess and Stéphan Sylvestre. She completed her DMA at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Martin Katz.