Biography

Laura has a lot of different roots: Norwegian, Finnish, Basque, Swedish, Siberian, a little Dutch and she has Inuit ancestors. Although born in Amsterdam, mostly she feels at home in the quiet, untouched nature of the North. She is a vegan for the planet and animals now for many years, loves animals and nature deeply, and she is a classically trained musician. Laura is a professional violinist (and plays the Norwegian harding fiddle and viola), a singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, music producer and music educator.

Laura graduated from the music conservatory Codarts University of the Arts, in Rotterdam. She left the conservatoire with excellent grades and a good, but deep impression after the final exam, which was both classical and heavy metal.

Laura is a versatile musician like no other: released a solo album `Free` under the name `Luíra` in October 2021, plays classical chamber music (and has a long experience with it), and last but not least, she has been active with her own metal band Adeia for many years.

When Laura was almost nine years old, her grandfather gave her his violin, and it was given to Laura because he was getting too old to play on it himself. When she got the instrument in her hands, she was instantly sold. And then Laura's magical musical journey began, and no one in the world that could change her mind!

In the years that followed, Laura took private lessons with private teachers Julia Veerling, Jan Repko, Jeroen de Groot and Peter Brunt. She played in several youth orchestras at the time (including NJSO, Barlaeus Gymnasium orchestra and Camerata, from the Music and Dance School Amstelveen) and entered three times in Princess Christina competition. She was awarded three prizes there: twice Laura was selected for the master class, in 1999 by violinist Emmy Verhey and in 2004 by violinist Peter Brunt. In 2005, she won an honorable mention for her musical interpretation of Praeludium und Allegro by F. Kreisler.

In 2006, Laura was accepted at Codarts University for the Arts in the classical violin direction, and then everything really started. During these years she played classical works from Bach, Tchaikovsky and Mozart to Shostakovich and Smetana. She took violin classes with Natalia Morozova and received chamber music lessons of members from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, including: Marien van Staalen, Tommy Shimon, Natalia Morozova and Sander Sittig. Her specialization became chamber music, which she also performed live with her Con Anima Piano Trio. With this piano trio, Laura was able to fully express her love of classical chamber music. In the school year of 2008/ 2009 Con Anima Piano Trio was selected as the best and most inspiring classical music ensemble of that school year by Codarts University.

In addition to her violin studies, she started singing lessons from her second year, which also became a major. Then she could fulfill her second passion! Laura took singing lessons with Harjo Pasveer who taught her everything: from classical singing, to pop and rock singing and alternative singing styles such as growling! In the last 3 years, she broadened her horizons by teaching herself, among other things, Tuvan throatsinging, to play the finnish tagelharp, a jawharp and to play a Sami framedrum!

Classical music is not her only passion. For many years, Laura also listened to alternative music styles such as: singer-songwriter, (prog) rock, heavy metal, new age and indie rock. She was influenced by artists such as: Queen, Sivert Høyem, Simon and Garfunkel, Enslaved, Depeche Mode, Björk, Pink Floyd, Wardruna, Muse, Sonata Arctica, Eivør, Opeth, Blind Guardian, Mike Oldfield, and Kate Bush. In the third academic year of the five years she studied, Laura decided to explore these preferences by starting a minor herself at Codarts University of the Arts! She really wanted to learn to compose music and play in a band, a big dream that finally came true. This crossover- minor can still be followed at Codarts University today, under the name Rock minor for Strings.

A band formed from this minor which Laura named Adeia (from old greek language, `Freedom from Fear`) in 2008. Within this band she turned her poems into lyrics and gradually learned how to write her own songs/ compositions. That year Laura also played the electric violin for the first time.

In the end, she managed to create a unique experience during the final exam because she was able to combine her love for both classical and alternative music. Laura's final exam consisted of two parts: the first half classical pieces, and the second half songs from her own band, Adeia.

Adeia unfortunately quit in 2017 after being active for eight years, after playing many concerts, on festivals (FemMe metal festival 2016) and two studio albums (Hourglass and Serenity, both on Spotify and Youtube, among others).

After a few months, Laura decided to start composing new music in September 2017, this time alone, as a solo musician.

This was the start of a very exciting journey! She not only learned several other singing techniques, but also the world of mixing and musicproduction opened up to her.

Laura took music production lessons from guitarist, composer and growler Sander Gommans (known from After Forever / Trillium / Mayan / Phantom Elite) and additional composition lessons from friend and composer/ musician Florian Magnus Maier (Dark Fortress, Alkaloid, Noneuclid). In 2017, Laura recorded violins for Phantom Elite's first single, Wasteland. It can be heard and seen on Youtube! Sander Gommans and Laura not only continued a collaboration in the years to come, but Sander also became Laura's mentor, until today.

Laura's first solo album `Free` was released through Freya Records on the second of October 2021, two years after she moved to Tromsø. Nature is one of Laura's biggest inspirations, as well as climate change, humanity's footprint, her own stories/ past, animals and animal wellfare, psychology, the universe, society, the spiritworld and much more. She actually followed her intuition to Tromsø, to both follow her heart and to build a new life in Norway as a musician, composer, musicproducer and a musicteacher.