Lauren is 15 years old and a freshman at Cor Jesu College Preparatory Academy, Saint Louis. She studied piano and voice with Dr. Stephanie Owen from the age of 8 to 14, and flute from the age of 10 with Claire Grooms. From 2016 she has been advancing her piano studies with Gillian Cerbin, and voice studies with Dr. Katherine Jolly at Saint Louis University, but is currently without a voice teacher as her teacher is relocating.
Whilst in Grade School she won many musical honors. In 2013 she was the youngest ever winner of the Belleville Philharmonic Tuerck Concerto Competition, playing the 3rd movement of Haydn’s piano concerto in C. She won many superior ratings and perfect scores in all three instruments at the Illinois Grade School Music Association (IGSMA) between 2012 and 2016. She also achieved a superior at Virtuoso Level for voice at Mid America Music Association (MAMA) in 2015, and two perfect scores in piano level AA. In November 2014, she won the Guild Award at the Marie Stillwell Concerto Competition in Alton and returned to sing with the Alton Symphony as guest artiste in February 2015. At age 10, she was Vocal finalist in the 2012 Belleville Junior Idol contest, singing “O mio babbino caro”, and was asked to participate in Belleville’s 200th Anniversary celebrations 2014, singing “Summertime”. She was again a finalist in the 2016 Junior Idol.
She won first place in the solo Elementary level piano in 2011 at the Illinois State Music Teachers Association (ISMTA) southern district competition, and won two firsts in the duet Junior level in 2013. She has performed twice at the Illinois State Music teachers Gold Star Recital and at SIUE’s Young Pianist Competition. Lauren holds Illinois State level 10 Achievement in Music (AIM) for piano performance and theory. She was also the first student in southern Illinois to take an AIM voice examination in 2015, which she passed with high distinction, and repeated this achievement in 2016, singing in Latin, German, and Italian.
In addition to the above, Lauren sang the National Anthem at the St Louis Grizzlies Ballpark and was guest singer at two of Belleville’s German dinners. She was also invited to sing at the First Presbyterian Church in Alton, has cantored regularly at her local church, and has given community outreach recitals for local residents, and been asked to sing at weddings. In spring 2015, she won a perfect score in voice at State level IGSMA, singing “Se tu m’ami” in Italian, and was chosen as a Finalist in Art Song Voice at the Hal Leonard International Competition 2015 out of over 1,000 entries. In 2016 she was in the Final round of the Great Composers Series competition 19th Century Music. She was chosen to play the part of Rafiki in the 8th Grade school musical and won the 8th Grade “Music Award” at Saint Teresa School. She attended Opera Saint Louis’s “Spring Training” 2-week intensive training camp in the summer of 2016, which she will again participate in this summer. In June 2016, Lauren won First Place in The Great Composer Series on-line competition in 3 categories: “The Art of Opera”, “The Art of Sacred Music”, and “The Art of Musical Theater”. She also took Second Place in “The Art of Art Song”.
Since starting high school last August, Lauren was one of only 3 freshmen to make the select Cor Jesu Chamber Choir, and also sings in the Freshman and Liturgical Choirs. She plays flute and piano in the school orchestra. She performed at MSHSAA District Festival on flute, piano, and voice, gaining Outstanding and Exemplary ratings. She gained an Outstanding on flute at State. She won a Superior Plus rating in piano at the Arch Cup competition in Saint Louis at Webster University. In November 2016, she was the only Voice Soloist to compete in the Finals of UMSL’s Concerto Competition. In January 2017, she took Second Prize in The Great Composer Series “Best Mozart Performance” singing “L’ho perduta”. She also competed in Belleville Philharmonic’s “Stars of Tomorrow” Concerto Competition as the only Voice contestant. Lauren was asked to sing with the Winter Opera of Saint Louis’s children chorus in its February 2017 professional production of Carmen, sung in French.
