New York-based pianist Laura Barger is increasingly sought after for her dedication to contemporary music and for her energetic and committed performances. She has performed internationally both as a soloist and chamber musician at The Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), The National Gallery of Ireland, Västerås Konserthus (Sweden), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Darmstadt International Summer Festival for New Music (Germany), The Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon at Mass MOCA and The Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. Active in New York's new music scene, she can be heard performing everywhere from John Zorn's downtown experimental mecca The Stone to the Kaufmann Center's Merkin Hall.


Laura is a founding member of Yarn/Wire, a piano and percussion quartet committed to exploring and expanding the body of works for that instrumentation since Bartok. The ensemble has presented numerous US Premieres by internationally renowned composers such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Enno Poppe, Stefano Gervasoni, and Simon Steen-Andersen, and in 2009-10 will present "Composing New York," a series featuring world premieres by young composers from the US and abroad based in NYC.

Yarn/Wire has presented concerts and masterclasses throughout the United States appearing at the "April in Santa Cruz" festival, the University of Notre Dame, Dartmouth College, Queens College, and the University of Tennessee. Upcoming engagements include appearances on the North River Music Series (NYC), Southampton Chamber Music Series, and the Davidson College Concert Series (NC).

Additionally, Laura has performed with contemporary music groups such as the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talujon Percussion, Lost Dog New Music, and the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players.

Laura has premiered numerous works by composers from around the world, and has been fortunate to work directly with composers such as Philippe Leroux, Augusta Read-Thomas, Yan Maresz, Dai Fujikura, Alexandra Dubois, Simon Steen-Andersen, Mei-Fang Lin, David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Terry Riley. In the spring of 2007, she was the featured soloist in György Ligeti's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra as part of the Emerson Quartet's International Chamber Music Festival at Stony Brook University. Laura is also currently part of an experimental music theatre project by American composer Ellen Lindquist and Companion Star Productions. The international ensemble has presented performances both in Sweden and New York; in 2007 the company was featured prominently on Swedish radio and television. Based on the poetry of Tomas Tranströmer, Drömseminarium will premiere in Sweden in 2011.

Laura holds degrees from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (BM, summa cum laude) where she studied with David Northington, and Stony Brook University (MM, DMA) where studied primarily with Christina Dahl and additionally with Gilbert Kalish and Arthur Haas (early keyboards). She is currently on faculty at the 92nd Street Y School of Music in Manhattan.

Photo © Seth Olenick