Who is this Laura Boytz?
(A Brief Bio)
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Since making her Bay Area performance debut at the San Jose Jazz Festival in 2001, Laura has performed with a variety of jazz and world music ensembles, ranging from a Brazil-inflected Cello and Cavaquinho duo to a 10-piece band headed by Latin Jazz "Doctor" Wayne Wallace. She has recorded and performed with a diverse array of talented singer-songwriters, including Jazz vocalist Daria, contemporary Fado artist Ramana Vieira, and acoustic rock songstress Kim Baker, and has kept her classical and baroque chops up by performing with such groups as the New Millennium Chamber Orchestra and the Mill Valley Philharmonic. Praised by both audience members and bandmates as a "sensitive and talented" musician who is "always in the service of the music," Laura is happiest when creating collaboratively with other musical artists, inspiring dancers to dance and singers to soar.
(A Longer Story)
Laura grew up in Seattle, Washington, where she credits her mother’s playing and singing of Broadway show tunes on their basement piano as the beginning of her musical education. She began playing cello in elementary school, thanks to what was then a decent public school music education program; as a result she is a passionate advocate for music in the schools. As a teenager, Laura performed with the Seattle Youth Symphony and as principal cellist of the award-winning Roosevelt High School Chamber Orchestra, as well as in high school musical productions and other classical ensembles.
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Laura's interest was drawn to other subjects in college, although she took lessons from renowned cellist Gabor Rejto and continued to play for her own enjoyment. In the 1990's, she returned to playing regularly with an avid interest in studying Jazz, Latin music, and other improvisational styles. She worked with top instructors and performers at Berkeley's Jazzschool (now California Jazz Conservatory), Jazzcamp West, and in Havana, Cuba at La Escuela Nacional de Arte.
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Laura made her Bay Area performance debut at the San Jose Jazz Festival in 2001, backing up Jazz vocalist Denine Monet. Since then, she has performed with a variety of jazz, pop, folk, rock, world music, baroque and classical ensembles. She toured for 3 years with Portuguese-American Fado singer Ramana Vieira, gracing such illustrious stages as New York's City Winery, Seattle's Triple Door, Honolulu's Doris Duke Theatre, and Berkeley's Freight and Salvage, as well as numerous community festivals and intimate clubs.
She has enjoyed performing in a wide variety of collaborative Bay Area community events, including the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, innovative community theater productions, and a world-premiere, site-specific dance performance at San Francisco's City Hall.
She has enjoyed performing in a wide variety of collaborative Bay Area community events, including the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, innovative community theater productions, and a world-premiere, site-specific dance performance at San Francisco's City Hall.
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Laura appreciates the genre and culture blending ethos of the Bay Area and the way music can help build bridges between people of different cultures and generations. While she enjoys many performers' uses of looping and other electronic technology, she prefers to make music in collaboration with other sentient beings.
Laura taught high school English for 20 years, and still loves helping people work wisely with words. In addition to playing cello, Laura is an enthusiastic salsa dancer and fire spinner. Although creative and optimistic, she hasn't yet figured out how to do all of these at the same time.