Lauma Skride was born in Riga in 1982 to a Latvian musical family as the youngest of three sisters. She was a pupil of Anita Paze at the Emil Darzins Music Conservatory in Riga, graduating from musical studies as a student of Professor Volker Banfield at the Music Conservatory in Hamburg. The artist has taken part in numerous international competitions consistently receiving awards for her musical interpretations.
Although Lauma has performed extensively with her sisters: Linda playing the viola, and the acclaimed violinist Baiba, it is her solo career that is gaining momentum.
The highlights planned by Lauma for the current season include her solo début in Tokyo with Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, her Finnish recital début with Tapiola Sinfonietta under Andris Nelsons, her first performance in Sweden with Malmö Symphony Orchestra under Okko Kamu, and further performances with Hamburger Symphoniker, Staatsorchester Hannover, Göttinger Symphonierochester, Staatstheater Aachen, and Latvian National Symphony. Furthermore, the Lauma embarks on an extensive duo recital tour with her sister Baiba, with the venues including Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Salzburg’s Mozarteum and Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. The sisters’ duo made their début at London’s Wigmore Hall in October 2007 and will continue their cooperation with the cellist Sol Gabetta as a trio, following their successful début at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw last autumn.
Lauma’s varied repertoire includes piano concertos by Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Liszt, along with Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto which she performs with her sister, Baiba, and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in which they are joined by Sol Gabetta. It also covers contemporary works; this season the artist will perform Mark Moebius’s Portrait of a Businesswoman with Philharmonisches Orchester der Stadt Heidelberg with Cornelius Meister, and Piano concerto by Judith Weir with Sinfonia ViVA and André de Ridder.
Das Jahr, the artist’s début disc (Sony, 2006) with Fanny Mendelssohn’s works earned Skride the title of Newcomer of the Year at the prestigious Echo Awards 2007. Lauma and Baiba’s first duo CD premiered this current season.