Laura Usiskin

Cellist LAURA USISKIN has performed throughout North America and Europe in such venues as the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Palazzo Chigi Saracini (Italy), Weill Hall, and Barge Music. With a penchant for music both old and new, she worked as a Baroque cellist and has also premiered dozens of works as well as commissioned works in her name. In 2011, Usiskin founded the Montgomery Music Project, an El Sistema strings program for students in Montgomery, Alabama. The program has given intensive string instruction to hundreds of low-income children across three counties. Usiskin has held orchestral positions with the New Haven Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Orchestra Iowa. In addition to the Bayberry String Quartet, Usiskin is a core member of the Atlanta-based new music group ensemble vim. She has served on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, through which she founded the series “Chamber Music @ AEIVA,” as well as Birmingham-Southern College. Usiskin graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior from Columbia University, Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and Doctor of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music, where she was awarded the Aldo Parisot Prize. She currently lives in Atlanta.