Praised by The Straits Times for a naturalness "both disarming and distinctive," violinist Laurel Gagnon captured Third Prize at the 2026 Concours musical international de Montréal with her performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto alongside the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Sascha Goetzel. A graduate of the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Augustin Hadelich, she spends her summers as a junior artist at the Marlboro Music Festival.
Gagnon also won top prizes at the Dallas, Elmar Oliveira, and Singapore International Violin Competitions, performing the violin concertos of Bartók (No. 2) and Brahms. She has worked with conductors including Xian Zhang, Shlomo Mintz, Peter Bay, and Guillermo Figueroa, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Flagey in Brussels, Singapore's Victoria Concert Hall, and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR and KCUR.
An active chamber musician, she is a 2025–27 fellow of Carnegie Hall's Ensemble Connect and the founding violinist of the Vinola Trio, a clarinet-violin-piano ensemble with an emphasis on contemporary repertoire. She appears regularly with ensembles, series, and festivals including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Terra String Quartet, the Kallos Chamber Series, and the Halcyon Music Festival.
Her earlier teachers include Mauricio Fuks at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music and Ben Sayevich at the International Center for Music at Park University. Based in New York City, Gagnon performs on an 1809 Nicolas Lupot violin, generously on loan from Canimex Inc. of Drummondville, Québec.
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Junshi Yang Photography