Biography

Laura (McGlynn) Weed, composer, arranger, teacher & performer

Laura (McGlynn) Weed is a composer of piano, vocal, and chamber music. Born in Central America, her musical journey began in Colorado, where she started piano lessons. At age 17, Laura won a national award for her piano solo, Oriental Mystique. She went on to study composition with Donald O. Johnston at the U of Montana, Missoula, where she earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree with Honors.

After moving to Canada in 1981, Laura earned an ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto, taught music at Forest Green School, directed a community choir, and was an active church musician. Her musical, How Do I Love Thee? debuted in Stony Plain, AB and she arranged music for the 930 CJCA AM Radio & CTEN TV show, Spruce Grove Alive. Commissions have included music projects for Marilyne Allen, Marie Gervais, Sue Harvie, Silhouette, and lyricist S. Curtis Tufts.

Over the years, Laura has performed for numerous events, including A Class Act, Allied Arts Galas, musical theatre productions, Spring Fling, and Young Audience concerts with her husband, Gehres Weed. In 2004, Weed premiered her piano solo, Cryptic Motivity at a duo piano concert in California with her daughter, Janelle Weed.

Some of her students have won APTA Creative Music Writing competition awards, performed at AMFA Provincial Festivals in Edmonton, and have gone on to successful teaching and performing careers. Laura Weed has received enthusiastic feedback from music teachers and students about her compositions and arrangements, which have been performed at recitals, festivals, and other events in Canada and the U.S.