Laura Sewell

Laura Sewell enjoys an active and varied musical career and has distinguished herself as a highly respected chamber musician. She was the founding cellist of the award-winning Lark Quartet which, during her tenure, won the Bronze Medal at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and served as the Juilliard String Quartet’s teaching assistants at the Juilliard School. Two decades later, she was the cellist of the acclaimed Artaria String Quartet from 2007 to 2016. She plays as a substitute cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra and performs with the Twin Cities-based Isles Ensemble.

Sewell is the recipient of a 2020 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to record a CD of works for cello and piano by composers Stephen Paulus, Paul Schoenfield and David Evan Thomas. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School, where she was a student of Leonard Rose, and her master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Alan Harris. At the age of 17, she had the opportunity to study with legendary cellist Jacqueline du Pré.