ABOUT

Laura Cocks 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).

Laura is also a member of Talea Ensemble, and SUN HAN GUILD and performs regularly as a soloist, an improviser, and chamber musician with ensembles such as International Contemporary Ensemble, DeCapo Chamber Players, Third Sound, Wet Ink Ensemble, and many others in NYC and abroad. They can be heard on labels such as ECM, Denovali Records, TAK editions, Tripticks Tapes, Carrier Records, Chambray Records, Double Whammy Whammy, New Focus Records, Sound American, Orange Mountain Music, Amplify, Winspear, Supertrain, Gold Bolus, Centaur Records, Infrequent Seams, and Sideband Records. Their recent solo album, field anatomies (Carrier Records), noted as one of Stereogum’s top-ten experimental releases of the year, was praised for its “superhuman physicality” and “disciplined patience” (Bandcamp Best Contemporary Release and Experimental Release).

They have been in residence at institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Cornell University, The Delian Academy for New Music, and many others, and have given masterclasses and taught seminars in performance practice, composition, professional development, and applied critical theory at institutions such as DePaul University, Williams College, Oberlin Conservatory, University of California San Diego, Bowling Green State University, California Institute of the Arts, and many others. Laura holds a doctorate from The Graduate Center and continues their writing and research in corporeal analyses of art and musical praxis. They studied with Michel Debost, Kate Hill, William Bennett, Kathleen Chastain, and Tara Helen O’Connor at Oberlin Conservatory, The Royal Academy of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and The Graduate Center.

Highlights from the upcoming 2022-23 season include: the world premiere of a new long-form work by Jessie Cox in collaboration with the Sun Ra Arkestra; solo performances as part of Peabody Conservatory’s George Lewis Festival; the premiere of a new work by Tyshawn Sorey presented by the New York Philharmonic’s Nightcap series; the TAK ensemble tenth anniversary festival; and recordings out on Dinzu Artefacts (TAK ensemble), Catalytic Sound (with Chris Corsano, Luke Stewart, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Timothy Angulo), and Infrequent Seams (with Weston Olencki). 

Cocks will be in residence at University of Pennsylvania for the 22-23 academic year as part of TAK’s position as Long-term Visiting Ensemble in Residency, as well as teaching privately at The New School.

Laura plays a custom-made open G# Almeida with a Boston cut Powell headjoint.

Laura uses they/she pronouns.