Elden Little

ABOUT

Elden Little joined the faculty of Michigan State University College of Music in the fall of 2014 as a vocal coach. Previously, he worked as a pianist/coach in more than 70 operatic productions that range from baroque operas to contemporary works by composers such as Jonathan Dove, Carlise Floyd, Philip Glass, Jake Heggie, and Andre Previn. While working at Austin Opera, he worked as a pianist/coach, music administrator, orchestra manager and orchestra librarian. Additional collaborations include Des Moines Metro Opera, where he has been a member of the music staff since 2006, Opera Birmingham, Kentucky Opera and San Antonio Opera. Since 2012 he has been a faculty member of Opera NEO, a San Diego-based summer festival/training program. For eight summers he was a festival artist as well as chamber music coach for the Austin Chamber Music Summer Festival and Workshop.

He has accompanied numerous singers, most notably internationally acclaimed soprano Gilda Cruz-Romo, in recitals in Texas and Mexico. He went on several tours with the Austin-based choral ensemble Conspirare, and can be heard as a featured soloist on their recording “Through the Green Fuse,” available on the Clarion label. He has accompanied the master classes of Jane Bunnell, Denyce Graves, Brenda Harris, Marilyn Horne, Martin Katz, Catherine Malfitano, Elizabeth Mannion, Suzanne Mentzer, Samuel Ramey, Martial Singher, David Small, Pamela South and Gerard Souzay.

His educational training includes a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in piano performance, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees in applied piano from the University of Texas at Austin. His collaborative piano studies were with noted collaborative pianists Eugene Bossart, David Garvey and Gwendolyn Koldofsky.