Biography
Laura Barron has enjoyed teaching at the University of Oregon faculty for the 2007-08 year. And she now looks forward to pursuing an independent career, in Vancouver, BC, focused on chamber music, concert production, writing, composing, and teaching. Since making her solo debut, at age 17, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, she has maintained a passionate and diverse career in which she draws upon the inspiration of her teachers Bonita Boyd, Sam Baron, and Tim Hutchins. Highlights of her career include solo appearances with Alexander Schneider's Brandenburg Ensemble in Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center and the performance of nearly 50 premieres with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble from 1990-92.
Hailed as "one of the finest flutists of her generation" Flute Network, she fuses her passion for teaching, yoga and music of all idioms in many endeavors. These include her Carl Fischer 2003 book/CD Expressive Etudes for the Flute , her Whole Musician workshop led throughout the US and Canada since 1998, her folk music inspired recording, Echoes of a Blue Planet , and her crossover duo, Forbidden Flutes which was featured on the Nashville 2004 NFA convention Gala. She has served as principal flutist of the American Sinfonietta and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with the Minnesota, Vancouver, and Phoenix Symphonies. She has also worked as faculty at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and visiting faculty at the University of Canterbury in Chrsitchurch, New Zealand.
In 2006, she left her post as Assistant Professor of Flute at Northern Arizona University to pursue a lifelong dream for her and her husband, Geoff - to travel the globe for an entire year. During this unique experience, she presented recitals and master classes for the Danish Flute Society, in Cologne, Paris, and Ljubljana, while based in Scandinavia. From Europe, she and Geoff studied French in a unique walled, coastal surfing town in Morocco. As the pinnacle of their adventure, they traversed India, first as guests of its premier flutist, Shashank, and then to study yoga and, finally, a week of teachings with the Dalai Lama. To conclude, they proceeded to South America, where they began Laura's 40 th year, trekking 70 k to Machu Picchu, and then they volunteered for a children's organization in Bolivia.
Upon returning from her epic journey, she and Liesa Norman completed Forbidden Flutes' new jazz-influenced CD, Take the L Train which includes numerous tracks that they arranged or composed themselves. She also commenced plans for the fifth annual Painted Sky Music Festival. She and her PSMF Co-Artistic Director, Michael Sullivan, have presented over a dozen "chamber music with a twist" performances annually, throughout Arizona ,since its founding in 2002. Currently, she is working on a book project, Sell Art, Not Out which helps musicians and other artists market their craft while maintaining their creative integrity.