Executive Director
Lara Neves has been involved with the Pine Mountain Music Festival as a performer since 2010, most recently singing the role of Mercedes in PMMF's 2018 production of Carmen. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from Brigham Young University and loves teaching people to find their singing voice. She has maintained a private vocal studio for over 20 years and has served as adjunct vocal faculty at Southern Utah University and the Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts. She has been the instructor of voice at Michigan Tech for 15 years, where she often performs with the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra. Lara enjoys working on the administrative side of culture and the arts, and besides serving as the Operations Director of PMMF for two years, she has previously worked as special projects manager for the Institute of Policy, Ethics, and Culture and as the interim Director of the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. She lives in Houghton with her husband Joel and her dog Puccini and enjoys spending as much time as she can with her three daughters.
Artistic Director
Joel Neves is Director of Orchestral Activities at Michigan Tech where he conducts the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra. The KSO was awarded 2nd Place nationally in the American Prize in Orchestral Performance for its recordings of Jupiter and Sinfonia antartica. For its recent “Season of Premieres,” the orchestra presented a world premiere on each concert, including Joel’s new tone poem—Kalaupapa—about his great-grandparents’ imprisonment in Molokai’s leper colony. Joel will conduct his Hawaiian premiere of Kalaupapa in Oahu in December 2024.
Joel is a regular guest conductor of professional, college, and all-state orchestras. He has guest conducted the Hubei Symphony Orchestra in Wuhan, China (2015), the Orquesta Sinfónica de Entre Ríos in Argentina (2015, 2017), and the Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu in Romania (2024). He is currently Artistic Director and Conductor of the Pine Mountain Music Festival, a professional opera and classical music festival in Michigan. Joel was assistant conductor of the Orchestra of Southern Utah for three seasons and has guest conducted the orchestras at Brigham Young University, Northern Arizona University, Metro State University of Denver, and University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. He has also conducted the Utah All-State Orchestra, Idaho All-State Orchestra, and Kentucky All-Collegiate Orchestra, and this past summer was Director of the Foster Orchestra Music Camp in Kentucky.
Equally adept at theatre, Joel has directed numerous opera, ballet, and music theatre productions. He conducted How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying at Southern Utah University, Bizet’s Carmen with the Pine Mountain Music Festival, and Amahl and the Night Visitors, Swan Lake, South Pacific, and West Side Story with Tech Theatre. He has also conducted an acclaimed production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with the Minnesota Ballet (2015, 2018, 2021). In 2025, he will conduct Sweeney Todd with Tech Theatre.
A strong advocate for college conductors, Joel served as national President of the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA), the only professional service organization for conductors of university orchestra programs in North America. As president, he organized the 2019 CODA National Conference in Boston and selected the theme, “Repertoire and Programming for the 21st Century College Orchestra.” For the conference, he invited Peter Schickele as keynote speaker, Andris Nelsons (Music Director, Boston Symphony) as special guest, and the Handel & Haydn Society for a workshop on Baroque/Classical repertoire.
Joel studied conducting with Larry Rachleff, Gustav Meier, Kory Katseanes, Timothy Russell, and William Reber. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts in orchestral, choral, and opera conducting from Arizona State University and bachelors and masters degrees from Brigham Young University. He resides in Houghton, Michigan with his wife (mezzo, Lara Neves) and dog, Puccini.
President, Trustee
Linda is a Professor of Computer Science at Michigan Technological University where she has taught since 1978. She served as Chair of the Computer Science Department from 1996 - 2010 and again from 2019 - 2022. Her research interests are in software engineering. More recently she has also focused on broadening participation in computing through a variety of local and regional activities. Linda discovered her love for classical music while a student at Purdue University. In the early days of the Pine Mountain Music Festival, she decided to attend a PMMF Beginners String Workshop for Adults to satisfy her curiosity as to how one played a violin. This is where she learned the joy that comes from making music in a group. Linda lives south of Houghton on Portage Lake.
Secretary, Trustee
Treasurer, Trustee
Karen Blake is an administrative manager, and has supported a variety of companies and professions throughout her multi-decades career. The robust arts scene across the UP is a large part of what attracted her to come north from the Chicago area to Marquette in 2016. Since her move, her work has included various non-profits including Partridge Creek Farm and the Upper Peninsula Land Conservancy. As part of her Marquette life, Karen is a past president and current member of the Marquette Choral Society, sang with the Marquette Chamber Chorale, is a Superior Handbells ringer, and a member of her church choir and handbell ensemble. She regularly supports the Marquette Symphony, Superior String Alliance Chamber Players, and the Tuuli Quartet. Karen lives in Marquette.
Trustee
Victoria Baltensperger is a retired music educator and native of Nebraska. She received herB.M.E. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and taught K-12 music in Massachusetts, Iowa, and locally in the Lake Linden-Hubbell Schools. For 25 years she taught elementary music and directed the middle school and high school choirs in the Hancock Public Schools, where she also produced and directed 5 musicals. She was active in the American Choral Directors Association-Michigan, Michigan School Vocal Music Association and Music Educators National Conference. Vickie was one of the inaugural members of the Michigan Tech Chamber Chorus in 1980 and continues to sing Soprano I in that ensemble, now the Michigan Tech Concert Choir. She has also performed in several area theater and musical theater productions, including as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana, Aldonza/Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha, and Lili in Carnival. Vickie enjoys cross-country skiing and international travel. She lives in Houghton with her husband Brad; they have two children and four grandchildren.
Trustee
David Echelbarger is a retired Lutheran Pastor, ELCA, who served four congregations for a total of 38 years with his wife, Christine Thomas-Echelbarger who is also an ELCA pastor. Both of their children play the violin, and their grandchildren are in various music programs including violin, piano, and percussion. David spends many hours listening to and reading about classical music and exploring the latest contemporary releases. He is also a writer and has written for various publications. Throughout the years he has served on numerous boards of directors including college, seminary, national church boards, and the Racine Symphony Advisory board. He is enthusiastic about bringing classical musical experiences to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and opening the door of classical music for all.
Trustee
Frederick Maynard, MD is a retired physician living in Marquette since 1999. He is a native of the Downriver Detroit area and a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School in 1968. He is a specialist of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and has been a Professor at Stanford, University of Michigan, and Case Western Reserve University Medical Schools before moving to Marquette and practicing in the U.P. until 2015. He and his wife Kathy have been devoted concert-goers throughout their 54 years of marriage and have enjoyed listening to operas, symphonies, soloists, and chamber groups in all the places they have lived and traveled. Fred has also enjoyed singing in church choirs and community groups since childhood and also enjoys playing clarinet in bands and chamber groups. Since coming to Marquette he has sung in the Marquette Choral Society and has played in the Marquette City Band regularly. He has enjoyed all of the PMMF concerts during the last 21 years and looks forward to serving on the Board to help with ensuring the continued success of PMMF.
Trustee
Panamanian-American soprano and DEIA advocate Maitri White has always recognized that solidarity and transparent communication among artists is the key to equity in the performing arts industry. Currently based in Detroit, MI, Maitri is a freelance opera singer and Equity Initiatives Administrative Coordinator for the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. For the 2023-24 season, chorus engagements include Madame Butterfly and The Cunning Little Vixen with Detroit Opera. This summer, she can be seen as a featured artist in recital for the Pine Mountain Music Festival and as a young artist with Soo Opera, where she will sing Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte and Mrs. Gleaton/ Ensemble in Susannah. In the 2022-23 season Maitri performed as a member of the chorus for Detroit Opera’s productions of Faust, Aida in Concert, and Ainadamar, and was also featured as a young artist with the Pine Mountain Music Festival. Maitri holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan. She looks forward to returning to UM to begin her Master of Music this fall.
Executive Director Emeritus
Mr. Van Pelt retired as the PMMF Executive Director in March 2012 after successfully leading the organization since 2007. He considers PMMF an essential part of life in the U.P., bringing a dimension of life that was not here before. He loves orchestral and chamber music, and loves to make it available to others. Peter really loves opera, which he calls the most comprehensive of all art forms, and he wants everybody to share that enthusiasm. He was in his mid-30s when he saw his first opera, and would like everybody else to start earlier!
Peter served on the Festival's Board of Trustees for seven years, two of those as president. He has also served on the board of the Calumet Theatre and the Keweenaw County Historical Society. Peter earned a certificate in nonprofit management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Peter and his wife, Patricia, received the Laura Jean Deming Award from the Festival in 2007. He enjoys working with the Festival's volunteers and staff, and meeting the artists.
Peter spent his childhood summers in the Keweenaw, but was otherwise brought up in Illinois and Ohio. He met his late wife, Patricia, at Swarthmore College; they have three children, and several grandchildren and step-grandchildren. Peter now lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, to be closer to family, but keeps in close touch with the Festival.