Laura Hammes Black-
After growing up in Ithaca, New York, playing both the piano and the violin, I graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelors Degree in Violin Performance, where I studied with Angel Reyes. I then studied with Josef Gingold at Indiana University, where I graduated with a Masters Degree in
Violin Performance, and a minor in music history.
I have attended summer music festivals with the Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. I have also had the pleasure to be a faculty member of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Blue Lake, Michigan and the High Plains Music Camp in Hays, Kansas.
Over the years, I have played in the first violin section of the Flint (Michigan) Symphony, the Evansville (Indiana) Philharmonic, the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Symphony, the Wichita Grand Opera Orchestra, and the Hays (Kansas) Symphony. I now play in the first violin section of the Wichita (Kansas) Symphony, the Music Theatre of Wichita (Kansas) Orchestra, and was the Assistant Concertmaster of the Salina (Kansas) Symphony from 2018-2022. Currently I am the Concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of the Smoky Valley in Lindsborg (Kansas).
I have had L.H.B. Music studio in Wichita, Kansas since 1986. From 2018-2020, I was a member of the violin faculty at Kansas
Wesleyan University in Salina, Kansas. Since 2020 I have been on the violin faculty at Friends University (Wichita, Kansas) and since 2022 I have been on the faculty of Bethany College teaching violin, viola, and piano (Lindsborg, Kansas). I also do freelance playing in the Wichita area and am the Artistic Director and Strings Coordinator of Camp Allegro Wichita and the Director of the ICT Young Artists Academy.
