My Story
In intimate night clubs or large concert venues vocalist Geri Larson fills the space with grace and joy with her vibrant stage presence and enveloping voice. A rich instrument with warm low notes and sparkling high notes she delivers memorable performances. With a Masters in Vocal Performance, Geri is a professional musician who performs as a soloist as well as with duos, trios, bands, vocal ensembles and orchestras.
From her childhood growing up in central Illinois, she knew from a young age that singing would be her lifelong passion. Her mother was a church organist, singer and violinist and her older brother played trumpet and sang with a local boys' choir. After playing piano and flute in grade school, Geri began taking voice lessons at the age of 11 and was cast in her first musical at the age of 13 as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. This began a long line of theatre roles that included Sandy in Grease, Maria in West Side Story, Eve Harrington in Applause and many others.
After receiving Bachelors in Vocal Performance from Illinois Wesleyan University Geri joined a performance company and did two tours of Europe performing in several operas and solo appearances performing classical art songs. After returning from Europe she was awarded a Graduate Assistantship at Illinois State University where she taught voice, was the assistance director for the vocal jazz group and performed in serveral vocal groups and productions, and received her Masters in Vocal Performance.
From her childhood growing up in central Illinois, she knew from a young age that singing would be her lifelong passion. Her mother was a church organist, singer and violinist and her older brother played trumpet and sang with a local boys' choir. After playing piano and flute in grade school, Geri began taking voice lessons at the age of 11 and was cast in her first musical at the age of 13 as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. This began a long line of theatre roles that included Sandy in Grease, Maria in West Side Story, Eve Harrington in Applause and many others.
After receiving Bachelors in Vocal Performance from Illinois Wesleyan University Geri joined a performance company and did two tours of Europe performing in several operas and solo appearances performing classical art songs. After returning from Europe she was awarded a Graduate Assistantship at Illinois State University where she taught voice, was the assistance director for the vocal jazz group and performed in serveral vocal groups and productions, and received her Masters in Vocal Performance.
Over the years she has performed in many operas, dinner theater and musical theater productions as well as singing lead with big bands, pop, rock, country and jazz groups. After moving to the Chicago area Geri also began working as a studio musician performing on demos, commercials, backup tracks and other interesting projects. Geri is comfortable singing all types of music from Mozart and Verdi to Heart, Pat Benatar, Patsy Cline, Martina McBride, Whitney Houston and Adelle as well at 50' classics, jazz and classical.
Currently she performs with the rock/top 40 band Circle of Fifths (www.circleoffifthsmusic.com), the professional choir Heartland Voices in Elgin, IL (www.heartlandvoices.com), the big band The Falconaires Orchestra and is the vocalist for two local jazz combo, and an accoustic duo as well as various solo engagements in and around the Chicago area.