Laura Caviani

Education & Professional History

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, MMus

Laura Caviani received the B.M. in Composition from Lawrence University and the M.M. in Improvisation from the University of Michigan. She also studied with composer and jazz pianist JoAnne Brackeen and at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village in Japan. She directs the Jazz Area at Carleton College in Minnesota, where she conducts their Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Lab Band, and teaches Jazz Composing and Arranging, applied jazz piano and improvisation.

Ms. Caviani is a dedicated and veteran jazz pianist, recording artist, composer, and educator in diverse musical settings, including guest artist residencies and performances in Japan, Argentina and Scotland. She has seven critically acclaimed recordings to her credit as a leader, and many more as a collaborative pianist, composer, and arranger.

Recent recording projects by the Laura Caviani Trio include: Mysterious Thelonious and Confluence, both of which feature Chris Bates on bass and Dave Schmalenberger on drums. She has set poetry to music, including the works of Edna St. Vincent Millay for Prudence Johnson, William Shakespeare for The Great River Chorale, and Rumi for Vocal Essence. During a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts in New York, she composed music to the words of activists Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Paul Wellstone and others for the Carleton College Choir. More recently, Carleton’s Theatre Department commissioned Ms. Caviani to compose new music for their production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which featured students from both the Music and the Theatre Departments. Please visit www.lauracaviani.com for more information.