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Lauren Spavelko (b. 1989) is a composer, teacher, performer, and visual artist. People are her favorite part of music. We should all experience the beauty, craft, love, and joy in music-making.
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From the serious to the lighthearted, Lauren’s compositions ask us to better understand and explore our human experience. They invite empathy, reflection, discussion, curiosity, play, and connection. Her most notable works are Baby Book, a song cycle for soprano on miscarriage, pregnancy, and motherhood (winner of Festival dei Due Mondi’s 2017 Young Composers Competition in Spoleto, Italy; finalist for the 2019 NATS Art Song Composition Award, and finalist for the American Prize in Vocal Chamber Music); and Kéyah, a symphonic work in collaboration with National Parks Eminent Photograher Frank Lee Ruggles commissioned by the Central Ohio Symphony. She is also a winner of the Ruth Anderson Commission Prize from IAWM for Black Box 2.0. Lauren has written chamber, orchestral, choral, and electronic works with special affinity for vocal and string writing. Lyrical melodies, mixed meter, subtle polyrhythm, contrasts in color, and narrative are frequent characteristics of her music.
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Her works have been performed across the country and in Italy, including by forty/sixty, the Talea Ensemble, and the University of Louisville Symphony Orchestra, and at festivals and events such as Incontri Musicali, JMU, the Music By Women Festival, the Wyoming Festival, and New Music on the Point. She has been commissioned by the Central Ohio Symphony and arranged Orphée+ with Opera Columbus.
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Lauren performs in both classical and commercial productions. She originated the role of Elizabeth in Justin Giarrusso's A World Apart with NANOWorks. She has portrayed both dramatic and comedic roles in works by Vaughan Williams, Adamo, Menotti, Mozart, and more. In July 2016, she studied with Lingua e canto, a 4-week opera and lanugage intensive in Sant'Angelo in Vado, Italy. From 2012-2014, Lauren toured with internationally-reknowned artist Tajci and manager/producer Matthew Cameron, performing in 100+ concerts as a violinist and vocalist.
Lauren is a graduate of the University of Louisville (M.M. Composition) and Ohio Wesleyan University (B.M. Music Education). She has studied composition with Steve Rouse, Clint Needham, and Jason Bahr.
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Lauren lives in Columbus, Ohio where she operates the thriving studio
Musical Life and teaches at Otterbein University. You can hear her laughing through the city while swing dancing, singing and fiddling at jam sessions, and making a joyful raucous with her artistically-inclined circle.
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