Dr. Patricia Laurence is an instructor of violin at the Michigan State University Community Music School. She is also a member of the CMS Suzuki faculty.
Dr. Laurence received her Bachelor of Music at the University of Iowa, before earning her Master of Music at Rice University. She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature at Eastman School of Music.
Throughout her career as a violinist, Dr. Laurence has been awarded scholarships to play with the Aspen Festival Orchestra and the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Austria. She has also played at the Heidelberg Castle Festival in Germany in 1993 and the Rome Festival in Italy in 1996.
Dr. Laurence was the director of Virginia Beach Suzuki Violinists for 17 years, and taught at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp for 13 years. She was on the faculty of the University of Georgia, Valdosta and Old Dominion University.
She has played with the Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw and Savannah Symphony Orchestras, the Houston Grand Opera and Symphony, the Virginia Opera Company, the Virginia Symphony, and the Washington D.C. National Symphony.
Dr. Laurence enjoys teaching Baroque performance practice, summer music camps, working with student musicians of all ages, and coaching chamber music.