Laura Chambers is a flutist, educator, and researcher based in Toronto, Ontario. Principal flute of the London Symphonia, Laura performs regularly as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician with ensembles across North America. Flexible in musical genre, she is featured on the multi-million copy selling videogame and Billboard #1 Jazz album Cuphead and is a favourite collaborator of Juno nominated folk singer-song writer Dayna Manning. She is also a founding member of the Charm of Finches, Canada’s only professional flute quintet. A lover of the outdoors, her performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for an audience of over 30,000 at sunset in the Nevadan desert is her most memorable to date.
A passionate educator, Laura’s teaching studio consists of students spanning in age from 5 to 85, and she is welcomed as guest clinician and adjudicator at schools, music camps and festivals across Canada. She is a faculty member at Lakefield Music Camp, and Bobcaygeon Summer Music. In addition to her performance and private teaching, Laura is a PhD candidate at York University where her research is focused on the recontextualization and sustainability of classical music in today’s world. Laura has recently published articles in the journal MUSICultures and the UK journal Music Health and Well-Being. Her research on Canadian musicians’ initial reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic will be featured in a chapter of the upcoming 2022 book Music in the wake of COVID-19: Challenges, Adaptations, and New Practices.
Laura completed her master’s degree at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music with Professor Jim Walker. Past teacher and mentors include Patrick Gallois (International soloist), Denis Bouriakov (Principal flute, L.A. Phil), Dr. Tara Helen O’Connor (Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center), and Dr. Amy Hamilton (Wilfrid Laurier University). When not researching, teaching, or performing, Laura can be found experimenting in the kitchen, or curling up with a book alongside her Maine Coon Rogue.