Laura Pero grew up in a suburb of Syracuse, New York, surrounded by a musically talented family. She began piano, then took up clarinet in elementary school. In high school, she picked up the oboe and percussion instruments after a teacher kept saying, “She’d be a great oboe player when she’s older.”
Post-high school graduation, she earned a bachelor’s in Music from Syracuse University and moved to Frederick in late 2008 for an apprenticeship with Music & Arts, the nation’s leading instrument repair facility. Since her move to Maryland, she’s played with the Frederick Symphony Orchestra.
We sat down with the musical prodigy and learned a little bit about why she’d rather duet with a rock and roll guitarist over a classical composer and what her first performance song was:
Who is your dream duet?
“My natural inclination is to go totally not classical. Liz Phair and Dave Grohl.”
Who or what inspires you the most?
“Musically? Probably my family because even to the vast [expanses] of it, we’re all musicians. My sisters and I all took piano lessons from a young age. Most of my cousins are musicians in some capacity. Most of us are in liberal arts jobs.”
What is it about music that you love?
“I like that it’s fluid enough that you can be really open and creative, but also, sometimes, you can be really rigid, and the constraints are the challenge that helps you be creative. I like that there are so many different styles and moods that can be created by your own music.”
When did you first get involved with music?
“5 [years old]. I stopped playing [piano] in the middle of college, so I played until I was about 20, and it was mostly because I was just shifted to solely oboe. That was my focus. That’s what I went to school for, and it just became too much to…be studying oboe and also playing piano on the side. I just became, over time, much less passionate about it.”
Where was your first concert?
“It depends. It was either a piano recital when I was young that was at a church, or it was elementary school [in New York]. So, I started in fourth grade, and you spent the entire year just doing lessons, and then the big thing you worked toward was that you got to play a song with the fifth and sixth graders at their concert. The song was Hang On Sloopy, I remember that. I remember feeling very excited about it, and then a little less excited because we were just…in the back. You just felt really small.”
Why did you choose the oboe?
“It was the thing I liked the most, and not necessary the thing I was best at because I was a percussionist in high school, too, and I’m probably more naturally inclined to percussion, but I like a challenge, and I really liked playing the oboe. It presented challenges for me, so it was more interesting. There was something to work toward.”
How has music changed your life?
“I can’t answer that because I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t a musician. When I was young…I went through ‘I want to be an artist or a cartoonist,’ kind of variations on drawing professions, but then when I started playing more wind instruments, it was music from then on out.”
Listen to Laura and the rest of our orchestra in the second concert of our 20th Anniversary season on Dec. 10, 2016, in Jack B. Kussmaul Theater. Get your tickets today. You can also follow her podcast, The Lettuce Podcast, here.