Laura Thompson is a freelance flutist, a recording artist, and an educator. She holds both a Master and a Bachelor of Music in flute performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, the City University of New York. After graduating, Laura traveled to Holland to study the baroque flute with Jed Wentz. She also holds teaching certificates from the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

A student of Keith Underwood and Samuel Baron and the founding member of Bacchanalia Baroque, Laura was featured on WHRB radio in Cambridge, MA prior to her debut performance at the Boston Early Music Festival in 2002. 

Laura has performed with the Amherst Early Music Festival orchestra in Storrs, CT, the Longy Festival Orchestra in Cambridge MA, and the Tafelmusik Festival Orchestra in Toronto, Canada. She also appears with The Strathmere Chamber Players, the New York Chamber Ensemble, the Grand Tour Orchestra, the New York Continuo Collective, Lyric Opera New York, Opera Ozarks, Di Capo Opera, the Greenwich Village Symphony Orchestra, and the South Shore Symphony. 

In 1998 Laura formed the Zephyr Trio which maintains a busy schedule playing private events and weddings in and around New York City and on Long Island. In addition to the classical repertoire, the Zephyr Trio plays arrangements of pop, classic rock, and jazz standards for flute and strings.

In 2001 Laura formed the group Bacchanalia Baroque Ensemble, dedicated to performing baroque and classical era music on period instruments. Bacchanalia has performed all over New York and appears in the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe events regularly. Bacchanalia has won grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center and New York City of Department of Cultural Affairs in 2008 and 2010, and from the Northern Manhattan Arts Association in 2010 for performances and recordings. Their recent recording of little-known composer and American emigre Joseph Gehot was released on the Eroica Classics label in May 2012, and is available now on iTunes and CD Baby. 

Laura maintains a busy teaching schedule at her home studio and at the Thessalonia Academy, a private school in the Bronx. She recently volunteered to perform on Renaissance and Baroque flutes at PS 321 in Brooklyn for the "Renaissance Revolution" hosted by Simone Dinnerstein.  Her many teaching credits include serving as flute faculty at The Rhoda Grundman Music School in Riverdale, NY, The Amati Conservatory and The Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly, NJ, The Manchester Music Festival Music in Manchester, VT, and as chamber music coach at The Rockland Summer Institute in Nyack, NY.

For information about flute lessons please visit: http://nycfluteinstruction.com