Laura Hamilton is Principal Associate Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Over the course of 31 years, she has led hundreds of performances with distinguished maestri such as Levine, Gergiev, Luisi, Gatti, and Nezet-Seguin. She has been concertmaster for many of the MET's live popular “Live in HD” videocasts, including Salome, Carmen, Parsifal, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, and Faust. In addition, she has been leader for scores of live radio broadcasts, and in summer concerts in Central Park and Prospect Park. Also with the Met, she has toured extensively within the United States and in Europe and Asia, and participated in numerous operatic and symphonic recordings with Deutsche Gramophon and Sony Classical.
Previously a member of the Chicago Symphony, she was featured there as concerto soloist with Maestro Solti at the podium. The California native is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, where she was the Nathan Milstein Scholarship recipient. In the field of chamber music, Ms. Hamilton has performed in the Marlboro, Tanglewood, and Bard Music Festivals, in summer festivals in Norway and Greece, and on the Met Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie Hall with James Levine and colleagues. In the summers, she is concertmaster for Classical Tahoe and Festival Orchestra NAPA in California. She has appeared as guest concertmaster for the Seattle Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera, and the Adelaide Symphony in Australia.
In 2014, on leave from the MET, Laura served for one season as Concertmaster of the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, resident ensemble at the Sydney Opera House. A highlight of her Sydney experience was a gala concert at the Opera House with famed tenor Jonas Kaufmann; her rendition of Massenet's Meditation garnered rave reviews praising her “radiant,” “serenely beautiful rendition.”
Laura Hamilton teaches at New York University. She has been visiting faculty at New World Symphony, Manhattan School of Music, and at Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy.