Laura Cocks

 

Laura Cocks (they/she) is a flutist with “febrile instrumental prowess” (The New York Times), who works in a wide array of environments as a performer of experimental music and “creates intricate, spellbinding works that have a visceral physicality to them” (Foxy Digitalis).
Laura is the executive director and flutist of TAK ensemble, “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), with whom Laura makes musics “that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (WIRE Magazine). As a soloist, improviser, and chamber musician, they have performed with musicians such as DoYeon Kim, Shara Lunon, Timothy Angulo, Luke Stewart, Wendy Eisenberg, Lester St. Louis, Brandon Lopez, and Madison Greenstone, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Sun Ra Arkestra, Talea Ensemble, and many others in NYC and abroad.

Laura’s recent solo album, field anatomies (Carrier Records), noted as one of Stereogum’s top-ten experimental releases of the year, charted in the Billboard top ten “Classical Crossover” releases and was praised for its “superhuman physicality” and “disciplined patience” (Bandcamp Best Contemporary Release and Experimental Release).  They have been in residence at institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, The Centre for Research in New Music at Huddersfield University, University of Chicago, The Delian Academy for New Music, and many others. They have given masterclasses and taught seminars in performance practice, composition, professional development, and applied critical theory at institutions such as Oberlin Conservatory, California Institute of the Arts, University of California San Diego, Columbia University, and at University of Pennsylvania, where TAK held the position of Long-term Visiting Ensemble in Residence from 2022-2023.