Laura Leigh Roelofs

violin

Laura Leigh Roelofs is Associate Professor of Violin at Wayne State University, where she heads the string department. Described by critics as a brilliant and intensely expressive performer, she maintains an active schedule of solo and chamber music concerts. Ms. Roelofs also holds the Assistant Concertmaster chair of the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra, serving as Acting Concertmaster from 2014–2016. During recent seasons, she has been featured as soloist for the Barcelona Ballet’s production of Swan Lake, and onstage as the violinist in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, opposite countertenor David Daniels.

Previously, Ms. Roelofs performed for fourteen seasons as Associate Concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and she also served as a member of the Oberon String Quartet, the artists-in-residence at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond. She has served on the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University and as Artist-Teacher of Violin and Viola at Georgia State University in Atlanta. While in Georgia, she toured the Southeast region as violist with the Atlanta Chamber Players. Ms. Roelofs has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony and the Richmond Symphony, among others.

She holds a B.Mus. in Violin Performance from Boston University’s School of Fine Arts, where she was a student of Roman Totenberg; she received both M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from the Catholic University of America, where she studied with Robert Gerle.