Violist Lauren Siess has enjoyed a varied musical career, beginning with studies in violin and jazz/classical guitar. A child of public school music instructors, Lauren is dedicated to developing creative concert programs, and connecting with communities through music.
Highlights of the 2018-19 season include performances with the Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, under the batons of Itzhak Perlman and Barbara Hannigan. In May, Lauren will present an interdisciplinary concert at Areté Venue and Gallery (Brooklyn), titled middle voice, featuring premieres for solo viola, electronics, and dance. She has collaborated with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, performing her voice/string quartet work By and By, at the Juilliard School. As a chamber musician, Lauren has most recently appeared at Zankel Hall, in Concert for a Sustainable Planet, as well as the Harvard Club with her quartet. Last fall, Lauren took part in the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Retreat, performing and visiting elementary schools on Shelter Island.
Over the past few summers, Lauren has created and participated in numerous musical and artistic outreach projects. Along with violinist Leerone Hakami, she founded the Joining Hands Project in 2017. They taught classical music at schools in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and learned traditional Israeli and Arab music from the students. Lauren and Leerone also presented a workshop at Pacific University, titled Research in the Performing Arts, on diverse ways of fostering community engagement through music. In the spring of 2018, her Uhuru Quartet conducted a workshop at the Win (Women in Need) shelter in New York, and later presented a program of women composers to benefit the shelter. Lauren is a member of the Gluck Community Service Fellowship at Juilliard, performing regularly with her ensemble of instrumentalists, dancers, and a vocalist at hospitals, senior living centers, and rehabilitation facilities.
Lauren has been in the Perlman Music Program since 2012. Residencies include Shelter Island (New York), Sarasota (Florida), and Tel Aviv (Israel). During the summer of 2017, Lauren attended Banff Centre’s Ensemble Evolution and Chamber Music programs, where she studied contemporary chamber works with International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Imani Winds, and Miro Quartet. Lauren attended Yellow Barn in the summer of 2018, and has participated in masterclasses with Kim Kashkashian, Itzhak Perlman, Vivian Weilerstein, Yizhak Schotten, Mathieu Herzog, Paul Coletti, Jeffrey Irvine, Carol Rodland, and Lynne Ramsey. A fierce advocate of contemporary music, Lauren has premiered multiple works by composer Joel Phillip Friedman, including one at New York’s National Sawdust.
Lauren currently studies with Carol Rodland at Juilliard. A native of Portland, Oregon, Lauren has played in and soloed with numerous ensembles in the Pacific Northwest, including Portland Chamber Orchestra, Portland Youth Philharmonic, and Oregon Sinfonietta. Former teachers include Brian Quincey, Helen Callus, and Paul Neubauer. An alumna of the Colburn Music Academy, Lauren soloed with the Colburn Academy Virtuosi Orchestra, Colburn Chamber Orchestra, and served as principal viola in both ensembles. She was a 2014 semifinalist in the Klein International String Competition (San Francisco).
Lauren is a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship at the Juilliard School.