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). They are also a member of Talea Ensemble, noted for their “astonishing fluidity,” “compelling lucidity, ” and “precise control” (The New York Times).
As a soloist, improviser, and chamber musician, they have performed with musicians such as DoYeon Kim, Shara Lunon, Timothy Angulo, yuniya edi kwon, Luke Stewart, Wendy Eisenberg, Lester St. Louis, Brandon Lopez, Madison Greenstone, International Contemporary Ensemble, Sun Ra Arkestra, Wet Ink Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, and many others in NYC and abroad.
Their 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). Laura can be heard on labels such as ECM, Denovali Records, Catalytic Sound, TAK editions, Tripticks Tapes, Carrier Records, Chambray Records, Double Whammy Whammy, New Focus Records, Sound American, Orange Mountain Music, Supertrain, Gold Bolus, Hideous Replica, Sideband Records, and many others.
Laura has been in residence at institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Wesleyan, Tulane, Oberlin, The Centre for Research in New Music at Huddersfield University, University of Chicago, The Delian Academy for New Music, and many others. They were named one of the top 40 music professionals in 2023 by Musical America and 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. They have served on the performance faculty of The New School College of Performing Arts and The Washington Heights Conservatory. Laura studied with Michel Debost, William Bennett, Kate Hill, and Tara Helen O’Connor at the Oberlin Conservatory, Royal Academy of Music, and Manhattan School of Music. They hold a doctorate from The Graduate Center and continue their writing and research in corporeal analyses of art and musical praxis.
