Laurien Jones

Laurien Jones was born in Spokane, WA. At age 9 she began taking free violin lessons, funded by the public schools. After two years, she found that she that she continued to love playing the violin. Her first private teacher was Robert Armstrong who was as much a nurturer as he was a fine teacher. During the summer, not much was going on in Spokane. The slow pace enabled her to practice 9-12 hours a day. The rest is history.

Soon, she began studies with Sister Xavier Mary, at Fort Wright College (incidentally, Thomas Hampson, the renowned opera singer, also studied there). When she was 16, she auditioned for America’s Youth in Concert, and was in an orchestra that performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, Independence Hall in Washington D.C., and Lord Albert Hall in London.

Before her senior year at Lewis & Clark High School, she had a chance to spend 9 weeks studying violin with Dr. Lisa Elson at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Dr. Elson was better known to be the Dorothy Delay (Julliard) of Canada). She demanded that her students practice scales 5-6 hours each day, and following that, you had the privilege of practicing your assigned etudes, and concerti.

In addition, Laurien went on to receive a BA at the University of Eastern Washington, and a MM in Education, the from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Laurien later auditioned and studied with Daniel Majeske, the Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra for several years prior to making the Bay Area her home in 1985.

Favorite composer

Both Mozart and Beethoven. They reach a depth within me that I cannot explain.