Laurie Haines Reese, MM, BM, CHM
cello & electric cello
“TRP… often has an airy chamber feel though cellist Laurie Haines Reese adds more grit when she fills in the bass lines.”
— Jerome Wilson, Cadence Magazine
An improvising cellist, Laurie is dedicated to creating music -- especially new music! -- that features the cello. An accomplished classical musician, Laurie loves the variety in performing jazz, folk and improvisatory music. From Lancaster, PA, she and her husband, flautist Tom Reese, are Certified Healthcare Musicians (CHM), going into retirement centers and playing for room-bound residents, hospice patients, and giving concerts for groups of residents (large & small!).
A versatile musician, she currently performs with folk-based group Abigail's Garden, and jazz-based band The Reese Project, Liminal Space, Susquehanna Trio, Wyndfall & MuZette. She free-lances in the classical, folk & jazz worlds extensively, performing on the east coast, in Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, Hawaii, New York & Europe. Usually she performs on her 180-year old German cello for classical and celtic/folk gigs. However, playing jazz cello and holding down bass lines requires extending the range of an acoustic cello, so for those gigs she plays an NS Design 5-string electric cello. Laurie has over 30 recordings to her credit, as a member of several bands as well as free-lance session playing.
She holds a Master of Music Performance degree from the University of Southern California. While in Los Angeles, she studied the advanced classical cello repertoire with Grand Dame of Cello, Eleanor Schoenfeld. For her Bachelor's Degree, she studied with Eugene Eicher in Miami. Her chamber music coaches include Hans Jorgen Jensen, David Bekker & Alice Schoenfeld. She recently attended the Creative Strings Workshop directed by Christian Howes.
She worked with jazz great Ira Sullivan while in Miami. Also while in Miami, she played for several theaters and worked with Melissa Manchester, Henry Mancini, the Harlem Ballet Theater and Gloria Estefan's group Miami Sound Machine. She did many recording sessions in Miami for various groups, including Jon Anderson (of YES)'s Christmas CD. While living on Maui, she performed the Boccherini Cello Concerto with the Maui Symphony, and performed in the pop/jazz trio Chamber Jazz Maui. Since returning to southcentral PA, her bands have opened for Gaelic Storm, Grey Eye Glances, and others.
As a teacher, she incorporates ideas from many types of teaching styles. She lets the student lead the direction of their study, guiding them to the best techniques and repertoire to help them fulfill their goals. She has beginners, intermediate and advanced students, studying all sorts of music, from advanced classical concerto repertoire to improvisation in folk, bluegrass, jazz and celtic music. At this point, her studio is filled with many adult beginner and intermediate players on the cello and fiddle. She loves the challenge of their inquisitive nature; adult learners have to know “why” they must do something instead of “just doing as they're told”.
She taught cello, using classical technique and improvisation, at the Lancaster (PA) Conservatory of Music, from 1998 until it closed it’s doors in 2020 due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. She has taught improvisation to young string players at Strings Excell since 1998. She formerly taught string methods, private lessons & pedagogy at Millersville University, F&M College, Messiah College & Lebanon Valley College. She was also a Rostered Artist with the PA Council on the Arts for several years, presenting sponsored residencies & performances in schools.
She is as comfortable in the recording studio as she is on the concert stage, having recorded in professional sessions since she was sixteen years old. In fact, her very first gig as a professional musician, at 16 years old, was a recording project for a folk singer. Her first cello teacher, Peter Brye, couldn't make the gig so he asked Laurie to fill in for him. She was hooked after that!
With husband Tom Reese, she has produced over 20 CD's, in addition to DVD's of their original musical scores to silent film classics. If you can't find them for sale on this site (or elsewhere on the web), please contact her for more information.
"Laurie's cello adds an alluringly dusky sound.”
— Shaun Brady, Downbeat Magazine