LaurelJean.com
Title
Laurel Jean, Christian music artist and speaker
Description
A creative pianist, singer/song writer and speaker, Laurel Jean began her career at age fourteen, recording her first album while still a teenager. She's a favorite entertainer and presenter for community, church, business, and family functions, personalizing her program for each occasion -- concerts, background music, receptions, banquets, fairs and festivals, conventions and retreats. Casual or formal, Laurel Jean offers a musical variety from semi-classical to popular standards of yesterday and today. Her combination of stories, along with Gospel, comedy, country, ragtime, Celtic, folk, blues and jazz music, are both fun and inspiring.
Blind since birth, Laurel Jean took up her formal study of music at age five, and for ten years was instructed in the areas of keyboard and vocal theory, note reading, ear training, composition, performance and presentation. During this time she was also active in recitals, as well as school and community events. When asked what inspired her to study and work with music, she says, "All in God's timing, I progressed from the two-year-old who clunked around on the family's old spinet piano, to the five-year-old who thought, 'Gee! I'd really like to learn to play this thing!' Then, it eventually dawned on me that people of all ages would listen to a message, interspersed with, or encompassed by music. This message varies with each occasion for which I present, whether serving as a quiet example of a professional blind individual as I provide music in the background, or combining Scriptures and stories with music to develop a particular theme."
Laurel Jean attended public school through the ninth grade, learning Braille and independent cane travel in addition to her regular curriculum. Following ninth grade, she transferred her studies to the Hadley School For the Blind, Winnetka, IL, which enrolls over eleven thousand students worldwide. Through Hadley's distance education, she added business and Braille music courses to her high school agenda and graduated with honors. As a post-graduate, Laurel was named Hadley's "Student of the Year". "My studies at Hadley allowed me to correspond and interact with many blind professionals from a variety of venues," Laurel explains. "These people continue to inspire me."
Contact
- Walden, Laurel
-
- Ramsey IL
- US 62080
-
- 618-423-9783
