Lauren Vandervelden

Violinist
Composer
Conductor

About Lauren

American violinist and composer Lauren Vandervelden is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School, where she was a proud recipient of the John Erskine Prize for exceptional scholastic and artistic achievement. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Solo Performance at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Switzerland with international soloist Ilya Gringolts. Lauren is the 2023 First Prize Winner of the Alexander & Buono International String Competition and the 2022 Grand Prize Winner of the Bellagrande International Music competition for violin performance.

Composer

Lauren has won numerous national awards for her compositions, including recognition from The Juilliard School, BMI, and ASCAP. She collaborates extensively with choreographers, visual artists, and fellow musicians. Lauren seeks to bring an operatic, narrative quality to her compositions, drawing and expanding upon the realm of tonal harmony as a means of channeling expressivity. She is inspired by the beauty of nature, striving to express its sublimity in her music.

Violinist

Lauren is the recent winner of the Alexander & Buono International String Competition and the Bellagrande International Music Competition. She performs regularly in chamber ensembles and has soloed with orchestras including the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. She recently served as guest concertmaster with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in April, 2023.

Conductor

This past summer Lauren conducted the premiere of her opera, Hludana, at the Zürcher Hochschule Der Künste. She also recently attended the Muzik Fermata conducting masterclass with Maestro Toby Purser in Oxford and the Dirigierakademie conducting workshop with Maestro Matthew Lynch in Toronto. Lauren has studied conducting with Maestro Jeffrey Milarsky at The Juilliard School and Maestro Marc Kissoczy at the Zürcher Hochschule Der Künste.