New Millennium Strings

Laurien Jones

Artistic Director, Music Director and Co-Founder

Laurien Jones holds the position of Artistic Director and Music Director and is also the co-founder of New Millennium Strings. She debuted as a conductor with New Millennium Strings in August 1999 and is in her seventh season with the orchestra. Her conducting mentor is David Ramadanoff. With Richard Kramer, conductor of the Contra Costa Chorale, she has been in conducting partnership with the Contra Costa Chorale for the past three seasons.

In Fall 2003 she appeared as a guest conductor with the Kensington Symphony, where she had previously served as concertmaster from 1993 to 1997. In addition, in Fall 2003 she conducted the Bay Area Concerto Orchestra with violin soloist Joseph Gold.

She received her B.A. in Violin Performance from Eastern Washington University in Cheney and an M.M. from the University of Nebraska, specializing in music history. Her thesis topic focused on John Dowland's solo songs with lute accompaniment and was a socio-historical study of Elizabethan England. She studied voice with Karen Noble at EWU and Adele Addison at the Aspen Music Festival.

Ms. Jones has studied violin with: Lisa Elson of Calgary, Alberta; Stephen Clapp in Austin, Texas and at the Aspen Music Festival; and Daniel Majeske, Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. In the Bay Area she has coached with Felix Khuner, Detlev Olshausen, and David Abel. As a professional violinist she has performed with the California Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Festival Opera, Lamplighters, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Fremont Symphony, Western Opera Theatre, Pocket Opera, Masterworks Chorale, and Diablo Ballet. In addition, she is the music librarian for the California Symphony and the Fremont Symphony.

Laurien is a respected violin instructor and many of her students are performers in New Millennium Strings. She is beginning her third year on the violin faculty of the Community Music Center in San Francisco.

She enjoys playing classical mandolin and has studied with both Paul Brinkley, a member of the Modern Mandolin Quartet in San Francisco, and Keith Harris of Cologne, Germany. She plays regularly with a classical mandolin chamber ensemble in Alamo. In Fall 2003 she became a new member of the chorus Soli Deo Gloria, conducted by Allen H. Simon.

Laurien was featured as a soloist in the August 1998, August 1999, and May 2003 concerts of New Millennium Strings.