Laura Ortman

Laura Ortman is from White Mountain Apache and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is a soloist and vibrant collaborator who works across recorded albums, live performances, filmic and artistic soundtracks, and is versed in amplified violin, Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, percussion, often sings through a megaphone, and is a producer of capacious field recordings. She has performed at The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Toronto Biennial in Ontario, the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, among countless established and DIY venues in the US, Canada, and Europe. In 2008 Laura founded the Coast Orchestra, an all-Native American orchestral ensemble that performed a live soundtrack to Edward Curtis's film In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914), the first silent feature film to star an all-Native American cast. Laura's video collaboration My Soul Remainer is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland.

Photo: Whitney Museum of American Art