Laurel Strickland is currently pursuing a double major for B.M. in Performance and B.M. in Pedagogy at Wheaton College, Conservatory of Music. There, she studies with Dr. Daniel Paul Horn, accompanies Women’s Chorale, has received an honorable mention in the 2020 Keyboard Concerto Competition, and serves as the Conservatory President Student Representative. Before her time at Wheaton, she studied with Prof. Edward Ferdinand and Ms. Olga Smirnova and spent her summers at Cleveland Institute of Music: Virtual Piano Audition Intensive, Cleveland Institute of Music: Summer Sonata, Eastman School of Music: Music Horizons Piano Institute, and the Philadelphia International Music Festival Piano Program.

Her performance experience includes masterclasses with Kathryn Brown, Tianshu Wang, and Kenneth Borrmann; multiple performances in Weill Recital Hall and the Kimmel Center; an appearance on the Cunningham Piano Show; and collaborations with Wheaton College Women’s Chorale and Sola Gratia Musicians’ Chamber, Concert, and Youth choirs. Awards include silver and gold medals at the Golden Key Music Festival, performing as a finalist in the PhMTA Dr. Andor Kiszley Concert, the Stella Elkins Tyler Music Scholarship, and local and state honors in the Dorothy Sutton Festival.

Laurel will continue her education at Wheaton College with the long-term goal of working in a music ministry that serves underprivileged children and neighborhoods. Her dream is to bring comfort and joy into students’ lives through the power of music and to nurture growth in all her students. Within this dream, her passion lies in using music’s healing touch to bring light into the lives of others.