Laurie San Martin

Laurie San Martin writes music that creates a compelling narrative by exploring the intersection between texture and line. Critics have described her music as exuberant, colorful, forthright, high octane, tumultuous, intricate, intense and rumbly. She writes concert music for chamber ensembles and orchestra but has also written for theater, dance and video. Her music has been performed across the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. Laurie has worked with numerous ensembles including the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Berlin PianoPercussion, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, eighth blackbird, SF Chamber Orchestra, the Lydian Quartet, Magnetic South Ensemble, Washington Square Contemporary Chamber Players, and others. She has received awards from the Barlow General Commission (2023), Academy of Arts and Letters (a 2018 Andrew Imbrie prize) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2016). Other past recognitions include a fellowship from the Fromm Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, League of Composers-ISCM, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer’s Awards. As a composition fellow, she has attended the MacDowell Colony, the Montalvo Artist Residency, Yaddo, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Norfolk Contemporary Chamber Music Festival and the Composers Conference. Recently, she has enjoyed working as a faculty mentor with the ArtZenter Composer’s Grant Program (affiliated with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players), the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, the Cortona Sessions, and the Brasília Orchestral Summit. Laurie holds a PhD from Brandeis University in Theory and Composition. She has taught at Clark University and is currently Professor of Music at the University of California, Davis. Her music can be found on several compilation CDs with performances by Amy Briggs, Rhonda Rider, the Lydian String Quartet, and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble.