Nadia Lawrence
 

Nadia Lawrence is a retired music educator who taught pre-school through high school and conducted and performed in the New York area. She came to California to work on her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at USC, where she served as Teaching Assistant for the Music Education Department. During that period, she also administered the then-Community School of Performing Arts (now the Colburn School) Westside branch. Her father was the esteemed Dr. Sidney Lawrence, a composer, master teacher, author and speaker, who ran two successful music schools in the New York area. There she learned to play clarinet and began conducting at age 14.

Nadia's earlier instruments were piano, voice and clarinet, and she performed in bands, orchestras and choral groups on all levels - including as a founding member of the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer chorus under world-class conductors. In California, thanks to Lia Levin, she has focused on recorders, as a member of Sempre Dolce Recorder Ensemble and now in LARO as a member of the Great Bass section.

Music plays a major role in successive generations as her grown children are musically active. Debbi sings with a Big Band made up of JPL rocket scientists. David has a recording studio in his basement and composes there. Nadia presented 10-year-old granddaughter Sarah with a plastic recorder at 18 months, and now delights in playing duets with her. Sarah also plays violin in her (New York) school orchestra. She picked it because a) they don't use recorders and b) it is small and probably the easiest string instrument to learn.