Soprano Jamie Baer Peterson was the child who put on neighborhood programs, plays and puppet shows while growing up in Minnesota.
"That carried on throughout high school," Peterson said during a telephone interview from her home in New Providence, N.J. "My high school choir director was just wonderful, and he took our class to my first opera — 'Marriage of Figero.' And that's when the seed was planted."
Peterson, pianist David Fletcher and violinist Winona Vogelmann will perform a special holiday concert in Wasatch Presbyterian Church, 1620 S. 1700 East, on Saturday. The music will begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
"When I was growing up, I didn't really think I was going to be a classical vocalist," Peterson said. "I wanted to be the next Joni Mitchell. But throughout school, I decided to get an education degree so I could fall back on it."
Still, after graduating from the University of Minnesota, Peterson went on and did some musical theater. While there, she was also introduced to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, becoming a member in 1987. And that gave her connections to the Beehive State.
In 1989, Peterson came to Utah as a guest soloist for the Oratorio Society of Utah. She did solo performances with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for "Music and the Spoken Word" and sang with Michael Ballam and the Utah Festival Opera for two seasons.
"It's interesting how things worked out," said Peterson, who recently recorded a CD with Fletcher called "Rejoice Greatly." (The album will be available for sale at the concert.) "The CD idea came about after David and I had talked about it for a couple of years. A lot of our friends heard a program I did at the Lincoln Center and said I needed to make a recording."
After a few months of investigating the costs of production and what kinds of music to record, Peterson and Fletcher settled on a holiday album that features such seasonal works as "O Holy Night," "Gesu Bambino," "Noel," "Silent Night" and "Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella."
"We wanted to have all these guest performers but decided to go with a string quartet, and that worked out very well," Peterson said. "And I'm very pleased with the project."
E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com