Laurel Irene (M.M.), Los Angeles-based "astounding...downright superhuman" (LA Times) vocal artist and voice researcher, specializes in bringing new compositional works to life with vocal repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Mozart to the wacky, wild, and extreme sounds of the 21st century. With incredible vocal range, agile flexibility, and "resigned, compassionate, forbearing, affectionate, sympathetic, absolving" (LA Times) emotional connection that stretches from playful to unhinged in the span of a page, she draws on her expertise in vocal research to heighten unique timbres, textures, and vocal expressions. In 2019 she performed the role of Countess Almaviva in REDCAT's 12 hour endurance art piece, earning Mark Swed's acclaim as "one of the most astonishing performances, vocally and interpretively, I have ever encountered". Other features include Long Beach Opera (Kate Soper's Voices from the Killing Jar), Musica Angelica (Purcell's The Fairy Queen), The Kennedy Center (Baljinder Sekhon premiere), LA Phil (Composer Fellowship Program, John Cage's Europeras 1 & 2), The Getty Museum (Steve Reich's Drumming), The Industry (Du Yun and Raven Chacon's Sweetland), LACMA Sunday Evening Concerts (Dominick Argento's Letters from Composers), The Box Gallery (Nice Day for the Races opera premiere), Monday Evening Concerts (John Sheppard's Media Vita, Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians), and The First Congregational Church, L.A. (Vivaldi's Gloria, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Fauré's Requiem, Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem). A recent winner of the Beverly Hills National Auditions, she also regularly performs with chamber and vocal music ensembles across Los Angeles.
As an avid voice educator and co-founder of the educational organization, VoiceScienceWorks and the N.E.O. Voice Festival, she gives voice workshops at conferences and collegiate settings across the United States and Europe including the Pan-American Vocology Association, American Choral Directors Association, Acoustical Society of America, Harvard University, York University, College of the Holy Cross, California Institute for the Arts, University of California Los Angeles, and Cornish College of the Arts.
Laurel is an alumna of performance programs at the USC Thornton School of Music, New Music on the Point, Cortona New Music Sessions, Oregon State University, California State University L.A., and the Summer Vocology Institute.
