Biography

Miss Holtshouser is an accomplished musician and private trumpet instructor.

Lauren has studied and performed a wide range of music from large and chamber ensembles to pit orchestras and British style brass bands. Recently she has completed 190 shows for an 8 month Global Tour with the Broadway Musical “The Sound of Music" that took her across 15 cities in Mainland China including Shanghai, Beijing, and ending in Hong Kong SAR. When off tour she enjoys performing for other musicals, weddings, graduations, etc. as a successful freelancer in both NC and New England states.

Lauren has also taught aspiring students in both New England and North Carolina. In Framingham, Massachusetts she taught at Centre Music House as their faculty trumpet instructor. She has also been on faculty at the Hartt School Community Division where she taught private lessons as well as going into schools twice a week through a program called Gifts of Music that specializes in bringing private instruction to low income band programs in the Hartford area. She specializes in teaching high school through college age students, but can teach any and all ages, as long as they show a passion to learn and improve.

She is an alumnus of The Hartt School of Music in Hartford CT where she received her Masters of Music in Trumpet Performance.

While at the Hartt School of Music; Lauren won the Paranov Concerto Competition as the first trumpet player in Hartt history to win, allowing her to perform the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto with the Hartt Wind Ensemble. She and her Brass Quintet also won second place in the Hartt Chamber Music Competition in May of 2022, and she has also recorded a NAXOs recording with the Hartt Wind Ensemble for Jess Turner’s Symphony “If I am to Leave” as a featured flugelhorn soloist.

Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelors in Music Performance as well as a Bachelors in Media Communications.

While at Chapel Hill, she was Principal trumpet in the Symphony Orchestra, the Wind Ensemble, the Final Five Brass Quintet, and was trumpet section captain of the UNC Marching Tar Heels. She has premiered works with these groups, including award winning film composer Christian Kolo’s “River Runs Silver” at CBDNA in 2018.

In 2016 and 2017 she was Principal Cornet and a featured soloist in the Watson Brass Band, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also led this group as Principal to the National American Brass Band Association Competition in Indiana, where they placed 2nd in the collegiate division.

She has been the student of various private instructors including Phil Snedecor, Tim Hudson, Ben Wright, Lisa Burn, and James Ketch.