Dr. Amy Laursen is the Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of South Dakota. She joined USD in the fall 2017 as an Adjunct Professor and then was hired as the Assistant Professor of Horn beginning in the Fall of 2018. In addition to teaching applied horn, she teaches music theory, world music, and other music education courses at the University of South Dakota. Dr. Laursen plays in both the USD Faculty Brass Quintet and the USD Chamber Winds. Additionally, she is the horn player in the low brass trio, Trio di Velluto, with her husband, Dr. Todd Cranson and her good friend, Dr. Jamie Lipton. The trio has commissioned new works for the ensemble by Corrado Saglietti, Barbara York, Mark Scott, Anna Segal, Marie Douglas, and David Brinkman. They have performed at numerous regional and international conferences, and have given regional tours in Michigan, Arkansas, Missouri, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
Previously, Dr. Laursen was the applied Horn Instructor at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, AR. There she taught applied horn, music theory and music education courses – including coordinating the annual HSU Elementary Music Workshop. While at HSU, Dr. Laursen regularly performed with the HSU Faculty Brass Trio, Faculty Brass Quintet, Faculty Woodwind Quintet, Natural State Brass Band, the Orchestra of New Spain where she played natural horn, and substituted with the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Laursen completed her DMA in Horn Performance in 2015 from the University of North Texas where she studied with Dr. William Scharnberg. Her dissertation, “Determining the Authenticity of the Concerto for Two Horns, WoO. 19, Attributed to Ferdinand Ries,” hopes to bring recognition to the relatively unknown work. In the last year, Dr. Laursen performed the work at both the Mid-South Horn Conference in Tulsa, OK and at the International Horn Society Workshop in Ithaca, NY.
While at UNT, Dr. Laursen performed and recorded with the Wind Symphony, Symphony Orchestra, Baroque Orchestra, Opera program, and in the Center for Chamber Brass Quintet. As a teaching fellow at UNT, Dr. Laursen taught brass methods and in the horn studio. Additionally, she was heavily involved in the Music and Medicine program working with Dr. Kris Chesky. Together they published an article in the Journal Medical Problems of Performing Artists in 2014, “Addressing the NASM Health and Safety Standard Through Curricular Changes in a Brass Methods Course: An Outcome Study.”
As a Wyoming native, Dr. Laursen earned her her Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wyoming in 2006. She received her master’s in Horn Performance from UNT in 2008. Before returning to UNT to begin her doctoral degree in the fall of 2010, she taught elementary general music, band, and orchestra for two years in Gillette, Wyoming. Additionally, she has taught private lessons in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Arkansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Iowa.
Dr. Laursen currently performs with the Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra (Sioux Center, IA) and substitutes with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra (Sioux City, IA) and the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra (Sioux Falls, SD). Additionally, she continues to play with natural horn with the Orchestra of New Spain (Dallas, Tx).
In addition, Dr. Laursen’s hobbies include gardening, canning, and yoga. She and tubaist, Dr. Todd Cranson are married, and they have a little dog named Joey.
