Laura Motchalov

Laura Motchalov, a tenured member of the Grammy Award winning Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra between 2003-2026, loves sharing music with others by teaching, performing and recording albums. She loves teaching people of all ages and skill levels and is very open to exploring different styles of violin playing (i.e. bluegrass, jazz etc.). Laura is also a Timani teacher-in-training (www.timani.no/what-is-timani) and strives to help students feel as joyful, natural and effortless as possible when playing an instrument.

Having started violin at the age of 4 with the Suzuki method, music has been a part of her life since early childhood. She's a graduate of the pre-college Mount Royal Academy of Music program in Calgary, Alberta, received her Bachelor of Music and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and has a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Notable former teachers include Edmond Agopian, Zvi Zeitlin, Oleh Krysa, William Preucil and Linda Cerone.

On numerous occasions, she has had the honor of performing as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, as well as The Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra, The Pittsburgh University Orchestra, TRYPO Symphonette, The National Repertory Orchestra and the Calgary Civic Symphony. She has recorded a number of commercially available CD's with a variety of chamber music groups such as IonSound Project and the Pittsburgh Jewish Festival Musicians as well as violin and piano duets with Igor Kraevsky.

Laura is thrilled to have taken Suzuki teacher training with David Strom, Rolando Freitag and Kathleen Spring and loves to teach people of ALL ages and skill levels, providing the tools to help them grow as musicians and bring the joy of music into their homes!