MEET THE ORCHESTRA
LAURA SMITH | violin
A graduate of the Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music, Laura is a tenured member of Symphoria and has played a number of recent seasons with the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown. Her performance credentials include concerto engagements with the New Philharmonic of New Jersey, The Naumburg Festival Orchestra (Lincoln Center, NY), The Rockland and North Jersey Symphonies, and The Julius Grossman Chamber Orchestra. She has served as Concertmaster with the Jupiter Symphony, New Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey, Opera Northeast and The Gregg Smith Singers. She has performed regularly with Voices of Ascension, Opera Orchestra of NY, Brooklyn Philharmonic and the American Composers Orchestra, and is a contracted member of The Greenwich Symphony in Greenwich, CT. She has performed in Broadway orchestras for Phantom of the Oprera, Lion King, West Side Story, The Boy From Oz, (with Hugh Jackman) and in Gypsy, (with Patti LuPone).
Ms. Smith is an active music educator. Her background in string music education includes 15 years of coaching and teaching with the InterSchool Orchestras of New York (NYC), performing and teaching at the Kinhaven Music School and Summertrios. Laura is currently on the music faculty at the Allen-Stevenson School in NYC, where she has taught for the past 18 years. She is currently launching a sponsor program with The Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts to make string instrument instruction available to under privileged children in the Mohawk Valley.
Ms. Smith also has a Master’s degree in Opera/Music-Theater and is a certified Yoga Therapy and Chair Yoga teacher.