Laura Jordan

New York based percussionist Laura Jordan has performed in Europe, Canada, Mexico and throughout the United States, in venues including Avery Fisher Hall, the Skirball Center of Los Angeles, the National Geographic in Washington, and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.

An advocate of new and experimental music, Laura seeks out new projects and commissions across genres. Recently, she participated in a group commission of Lukas Ligeti's Thinking Songs. In 2006, she gave the Western premiere of Menachem Zur's Translations for Percussion and Electronics. With the composer, she co-produced a recording of the work that has since been broadcast several times on Israeli radio.

Laura has participated in several festivals including the Paris Marimba Competition and Perkumania festival in 2006 and the first Zeltsman "Princeton" Marimba festival in 2001, for which she received a Semans Art Fund Grant.

Laura has also been featured as a touring and recording world percussion artist. She has studied under Kumar Das (tabla), Myron Bretholz (bodhran), Valerie Naranjo (djembe), and Brent Roman (frame drumming, accompaniment). Laura's diverse background has served her well in her work as a modern dance musician since the age of 15 for the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Peabody Institute, New York University, and the National Dance Institute (NDI). From 2004-2006, following two seasons with the New York Guitar Quartet, Laura joined the ranks of Ensemble Galilei.

Laura received her masters in music from the Peabody Conservatory in 2005, and her bachelors in music from the Peabody Conservatory in 2004, where she was a student of Robert van Sice and Jonathan Haas. Prior to that, she studied under John R. Beck at the North Carolina School of the Arts. At the age of 21, she was accepted into the highly academically competitive New York University Ph.D. program, where she is in the final stages of the degree. Laura is endorsed by Marimba One.