Laura is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native, and veteran vocalist with roots deep and broad from Classical voice training to Jazz, Blues, Rock and R&B. As the only child of musical parents, her father Bob a jazz guitarist, and mother Mary a classical pianist, she was encouraged to explore her talent from a very young age. She has studied vocal performance at McGrail School of Voice, with Josephine McGrail, Indiana University with Dr. John Dietz and Slippery Rock University with Dr. Maribeth Knaub.
Her professional career began in Pittsburgh performing jazz standards at local night clubs. It wasn’t long thereafter that Laura assembled a band of talented rock n’roll road warriors, traveling beyond Pittsburgh as the lead vocalist hitting the rock scenes throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Opportunity knocked when she was hired to support the tour of a performer for the TV show “Star Search.” Laura’s notable vocals led to the formation of “Body Heat,” a 6-piece high-energy dance band. As the band-leader and front person, she toured extensively for years across the eastern seaboard and Midwest, at fine resorts and hotels, under the management of John Parker Enterprises and National Artists Corporation.
Laura settled down after years on the road in Maryland, where she continued performing with her band “Body Heat” in the D.C. beltway music circuit. It was then that she enhanced her career by straddling the music industry both as a live performer as well as behind-the-scenes, working within an agency booking and promoting musical talent. In the early 90’s, Laura added parenthood to her repertoire and relocated back to her hometown of Pittsburgh. There she regrouped as “City Heat,” an 8-piece upscale variety band featuring a horn section and led the Western Pa. market for entertainment in the private market sector.
After years in Pennsylvania working as an Account Executive, she moved her family to New England where she furthered her career as a business professional in the greater Boston Area. It was here that she leveraged her background in the music industry to manage and promote the band “Mavara,” a globally respected Progressive Rock group on tour and establishing roots in the U.S. Laura has also worked on a variety of projects as a vocalist and is featured most recently on a lead track entitled “Women’s Diary” from the debut album <em>Chaotic Notions</em> by “Delusive Relics,” a blend of multiple genres within Indie rock.
Missing the stage, and anxious to go “live” again, Laura formed “She Funk” in the summer of 2018, a 12-piece “old-school funk” cover band, comprised of a 5-piece horn section, 2 back-up female vocalists and a 4-piece rhythm section with four of the NH seacoast’s finest veteran musicians. Back in the saddle as the band-leader and lead vocalist, “She Funk” is a big project, built from the ground-up with lots of support from friends and other local musicians. “She Funk” is a band that Laura has wanted to put together for years, which has now come to fruition, putting the groove back in her step, and the mic back in her hand.