Laura Kaminsky

Laura Kaminsky, an award-winning American composer, producer of musical and multidisciplinary cultural events, and educator, is currently professor at large in the School of the Arts at Purchase College. She teaches in both the arts management program and in the classical composition program in the Conservatory of Music. 

From 1999 to 2004, she served as chair of the music department at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and, from 2004 to 2008, as dean of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College. She has received national recognition for her innovative cultural programming and has held posts at several prestigious institutions, including New York City’s 92nd Street Y, Town Hall, and Symphony Space. 

Kaminsky has maintained an active composing studio and has had her music performed internationally. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and fellowships, and her music has been extensively recorded. In 1984, she co-founded and remains the artistic director of the new music collective, Musicians Accord, which is in residence at City College of New York, where the ensemble members work with David Del Tredici and his graduate composition students.

Kaminsky has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Opera America, New York State Council on the Arts, Aaron Copland Fund, Chamber Music America, American Music Center, USArtists International, CEC ArtsLink International Partnerships, Likhachev Foundation, Kenan Institute for the Arts, Artist Trust, Seattle Arts Commission, North Carolina Arts Council, Meet the Composer, and others. She has received six ASCAP-Chamber Music America Awards for Adventurous Programming and the Polish Ministry of Culture National Heritage 2010 Chopin Award.

Kaminsky graduated from the High School of Music and Art and studied with Joseph Wood at Oberlin College and Mario Davidovsky at City College of New York, where she received her MA in composition in 1980.