Lauren M. Smith is a multi-faceted musician from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, currently based in Rochester, New York. She specializes as a conductor and oboist.

As founder of the Louisiana Art Music Collective, Lauren serves as the organization’s Executive and Artistic Director. The Collective reaches hundreds of members of the south Louisiana community, offering free concert experiences featuring works by numerous composers. Lauren made her conducting debut in 2023, leading a chamber orchestra in the premiere of composer Jake Ellzey’s Cretaceous Poem.

Lauren has performed engagements on oboe/English horn with various ensembles including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Eastman Philharmonia, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Eastman Opera Theatre, Musica Nova, Rapides Symphony Orchestra, and more. Lauren was selected as an oboist for the Chautauqua Music Festival 2022 summer season. She was also a 2023 Fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in affiliation with the Yale School of Music, performing in weekly concerts alongside fellows, faculty, and guest artists. During her undergraduate studies, she won First Prize for the Baton Rouge Music Club Competition in 2022 and offered a recital as winner of the competition’s Instrumental Division.

Lauren interned for the Gateways Music Festival in Fall 2023 and assisted behind the scenes for numerous performances in Rochester, NY and New York, NY. She was also an Organizer for Context Conference: Contextualizing Equity & Inclusion in Music, the first U.S. academic conference with such a focus.

As an educator, Lauren is the Adjunct Instructor of Oboe at Houghton University and serves as a Teaching Intern at the Eastman Community Music School. She also has a private oboe studio, teaches students at the University of Rochester, and is an experienced teaching/graduate assistant. After careful review by the faculty, Lauren was awarded the Eastman School of Music’s prestigious Graduate Teaching Assistant Prize for the 2023-24 school year. 

Lauren was a summa cum laude graduate of the Louisiana State University Ogden Honors College and the LSU School of Music. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music, studying oboe with Dr. Richard Killmer. Her primary conducting teacher is Brad Lubman. 

Beyond music, Lauren is family-oriented, a passionate writer, and an amateur connoisseur of Louisiana cuisine.