Laura Gaynon, 'cello
Bay Area native Laura Gaynon is an active performer of both modern and baroque cello. Recent highlights include performances with Kim Kashkashian, Ian Swensen, Geoff Nuttall, Bonnie Hampton, Pedja Muzijevic, Jodi Levitz, and Paul Hersh; a concert of baroque violin sonatas with Krista Bennion-Feeney; and festival appearances including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, the American Bach Soloists Academy, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, and the 2012 International Piatigorsky Cello Masterclasses at USC.
Described as "stunning" by the SF Examiner, Laura is a founding member ofPhonochrome, a contemporary classical chamber ensemble, and of One Found Sound, a conductorless chamber orchestra in San Francisco. She also performs frequently with the baroque chamber group MUSA.
Laura has degrees from Yale University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she graduated with an M.M. in cello performance and an Artist Certificate in chamber music as a student of Jennifer Culp. She earned an added emphasis in Historical Performance through her studies with baroque cellist and viola da gambist Elisabeth Reed and harpsichordist Corey Jamason, and in 2013 won the Baroque Concerto Competition. Other important mentors include George Neikrug, Ole Akahoshi, Carolina Singer, Mikhail Gelfandbein, Irene Sharp, and members of the Brentano, Cleveland, St. Lawrence, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, and Borromeo String Quartets.
A devoted teacher herself, Laura has an active studio in the Bay Area and enjoys being a music missionary to local schools with ever-diminishing music programs. She has joined with Music Beyond the Chamber, a music outreach non-profit started by Jessica Tong, to bring concerts, masterclasses and presentations to communities around Portland, OR and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Notwithstanding her musical success, Laura's most prized accomplishment is completing a cross-continent bicycle trip, from New Haven, CT to Portland, OR, because, in her words, "I don't know why I'm still alive." She would love to bike the perpendicular path from Canada to Mexico if someone would be willing to carry her luggage.
Described as "stunning" by the SF Examiner, Laura is a founding member ofPhonochrome, a contemporary classical chamber ensemble, and of One Found Sound, a conductorless chamber orchestra in San Francisco. She also performs frequently with the baroque chamber group MUSA.
Laura has degrees from Yale University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she graduated with an M.M. in cello performance and an Artist Certificate in chamber music as a student of Jennifer Culp. She earned an added emphasis in Historical Performance through her studies with baroque cellist and viola da gambist Elisabeth Reed and harpsichordist Corey Jamason, and in 2013 won the Baroque Concerto Competition. Other important mentors include George Neikrug, Ole Akahoshi, Carolina Singer, Mikhail Gelfandbein, Irene Sharp, and members of the Brentano, Cleveland, St. Lawrence, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, and Borromeo String Quartets.
A devoted teacher herself, Laura has an active studio in the Bay Area and enjoys being a music missionary to local schools with ever-diminishing music programs. She has joined with Music Beyond the Chamber, a music outreach non-profit started by Jessica Tong, to bring concerts, masterclasses and presentations to communities around Portland, OR and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Notwithstanding her musical success, Laura's most prized accomplishment is completing a cross-continent bicycle trip, from New Haven, CT to Portland, OR, because, in her words, "I don't know why I'm still alive." She would love to bike the perpendicular path from Canada to Mexico if someone would be willing to carry her luggage.