Born in 2005, Laurel grew up on her family’s small organic farm just outside the city of Redlands, California. Currently studying with Jack Sanders, she began lessons at the age of 9 with Susan Graves, and has since studied with numerous other accomplished instructors (Barry Mc Naughton, Taro Wayama, Sean Samimi, and Celino Romero). Laurel has had the opportunity to perform in masterclasses for many acclaimed musicians such as Ana Vidovic, the Beijing Guitar Duo, Jason Vieaux, Goran Krivokapić, Los Romeros, and more. Additionally, in October 2023, she was one of six young guitarists invited to perform in Manuel Barrueco’s ‘Pre-College Guitar Virtuosos’ masterclass held at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.

Laurel was recently selected among 20 teenage instrumentalists from across the United States to receive the 2024 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. In conjunction with receiving the award, her radio interview and recording appeared on a special episode of NPR’s From The Top. Titled ‘Musicians from Rural America’ (show 447), the show aired nationally on nearly 200 radio stations.

Over the past couple of years, she has traveled around the United States to various guitar festivals, receiving first prize in multiple competitions. Most notably, she placed first in the 2023 Denver International Youth Competition and has also competed in three semifinal rounds of the prestigious James Stroud National Classical Guitar Competition in Cleveland, Ohio. In the summer of 2024, her guitar travels will take her to Europe for the first time, where she received a full scholarship to attend the Volterra Project- an intensive guitar program founded by Antigoni Goni. Later this fall, she will begin applying to universities to pursue a degree in guitar performance.  Her recordings can be found on Guitar Salon International’s YouTube channel, and in her free time, Laurel enjoys teaching several guitar students of her own.