Lauren Basney
Violinist Lauren Basney made her solo New York debut at Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall in 2004. Since then, she has performed throughout the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Japan, Israel and Australia, returning to Carnegie Hall twice in October 2007 and again in May 2008.
In New York, she has performed at Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, and Merkin Halls, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, the National Arts Club, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Art, Lafayette Avenue Church of Brooklyn, and Grace Church. Other United States appearances include performances at the Cosmos Club (Washington DC), the Florence Griswold Museum of Art, Harvard University’s Paine Recital Hall, Yale University’s Sprague and Sudler Recital Halls, the Lenox Athenaeum, the Flagler Museum of Art (West Palm Beach), the University of San Diego’s French Parlor, and Boston’s Centre for the Arts. She has appeared at the Aldeburgh (UK), Aix-en-Provence (France), Pacific (Japan), ClassiCameri (Israel), Orvieto Musica (Italy), Norfolk (USA), and Hampden-Sydney (USA) Music Festivals, as well as the French Academy in Rome, the Colorado College Summer Conservatory, and Juilliard’s FOCUS Festival.
Lauren is the recipient of the Oundjian Scholarship (Juilliard) and the winner of the Zerounian and Madura String Competitions. She was selected as a Yamaha Young Performing Artist and was twice the winner of the Special Presentation Award sponsored by Artists International, Inc. She attended the Juilliard School as a full-scholarship student, receiving her Bachelor of Music in 2001, and received her Master of Music (2005) and Artist Diploma (2006) from Yale University. She was awarded Yale University’s Stuart Walker and Henry & Lucy Moses Scholarships, and upon graduation, received the Yale School of Music Alumni Prize. In December 2013, she was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received the prestigious University Fellowship, as well as two UW-sponsored Vilas Travel Grants and two School of Music Travel Grants.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Lauren has performed with members of the Tokyo, Juilliard, Shanghai, Colorado, Maia, and Daedalus String Quartets, and has appeared in masterclass for the Guarneri, Emerson, Takacs, and Ying Quartets. She has performed as a member of the Latett Duo, the Aristos Quartet, the New York Piano Trio, New York’s Shuffle Ensemble, Classical Revolution Madison, and the Live Music Project. Since 2009, she has appeared regularly with the California-based Orvieto Piano Trio, with appearances in southern California, Vancouver (British Columbia), and western Michigan. She and her husband, pianist and fortepianist David Hyun-su Kim (davidkimpiano.com), perform regularly as a duo, both on modern instruments, and on instruments with a period set-up. Together they have appeared at the New England Conservatory’s Pierce Hall, Harvard University’s Presidents Room, Kuyper College’s Vos Chapel, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s St. Francis House, and the Lilypad Performance Space (Cambridge). Between 2007 and 2012, the Basney-Kim duo presented over 50 recitals at community centers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Kentucky, and Michigan.
For nearly a decade, she performed as a member of the Alianza Quartet, 2007 grand-prize winners at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, as well as 2008 first-prize winners of the Chamber Music Foundation of New England Competition. The ASQ was in post-graduate residence at Yale University from 2006-2008, acting and performing as assistants to the Tokyo String Quartet. Twice the ASQ participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar at the Juilliard School, and they completed successful tours of France, Japan, and Western Europe. Following their 2007 Carnegie Hall debut, Bernard Holland of The New York Times reported that “the Alianza players are musical, well trained and have an unusually elegant sound — they boil over with an edge-of-the-seat eagerness…I do not fear for their future.” Albany records released the ASQ’s recording of composer Ezra Laderman’s final three string quartets in 2009, of which the American Record Guide wrote: “The Alianza is a youthful group from Yale University. They play these works with evident appreciation of all the variety of expression Laderman invites them to use. It’s a fine ending to an important series. Bravo to all involved!”
In addition, Lauren has soloed with many regional orchestras, including the Kalamazoo Symphony, the Waterbury Symphony, Madison Chamber Orchestra, and the New Haven Chamber Orchestra. She has acted as concertmaster under numerous well-known conductors, including Lawrence Leighton Smith, Giuseppe Grazioli, Jeffrey Douma, and Shinik Hahm, and served as principal second violin under Krystof Penderecki, Anshel Brusilow, Leif Bjaland, and Eric Shumsky. Dedicated to education, she has performed and presented masterclasses at Colby College, Columbia University, Connecticut College, Amherst College, Western Michigan University, the University of Bridgeport, the University of San Diego, Central and Southern Connecticut State Universities, Fairfield University, the State Universities of New York at Stony Brook and Purchase, Baruch College, and the University of Iowa. Finally, Lauren is a passionate advocate of new music, having premiered works by Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, Avner Dorman, Jonathon Keren, Harold Meltzer, Jean Giroud, Michael Jarrell, Ryan Vigil, Brett Abigaña, and her grandfather, Eldon Basney.
