Dr. Lauren Posey

Dr. Lauren Posey is the Executive Director of the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute and performs as principal cellist of the Ballet West Orchestra. She is also on faculty at Westminster University, directs the Alaska Cello Intensive, and runs a successful private cello studio.

She was most recently honored as one of Utah’s 2024 Forty Under 40 by Utah Business Magazine for her work with the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute. Along with bringing some of the finest music education to Utah, Dr. Posey regularly performs with the Intermezzo Chamber Music Series and the Park City Beethoven Festival. Recently, she was also delighted to be the keynote speaker for the 2023 Utah ASTA Midwinter Workshop.

Dr. Posey’s extensive chamber music experience includes the 2013 Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, 2014 Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, and the 2014 Deer Valley Music Festival Emerging String Quartet Program. In 2014, she won the 2014 MTNA National String Chamber Music Competition as well as the 2014 University of Utah Chamber Music Competition with the Rosco String Quartet. In 2016 and 2017 she was a quarterfinalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, attended the 2016 Banff Chamber Music Residency, and performed in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Masterclass Series for Wu Han with Trio Mondial.

In 2017, Dr. Posey completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Colin Carr and was a recipient of the Staller Scholar Award. She began her music training in Salt Lake City with teachers Carey and Elliott Cheney. In 2012 she won the T. Gordon Parks Memorial Collegiate Concerto Competition and the following year also won the 2013 University of Utah Concerto Competition.

She graduated in 2011 with her Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance from the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Alexander Suleiman, and received a Master of Music degree from the University of Utah in 2014, where she studied with John Eckstein and Elliott Cheney.

In her spare time, Dr. Posey enjoys taking road trips with her five dogs Riggins, Taylor, Lyla, Garrity, and Kora. She also volunteers with Arctic Rescue, a Utah-based rescue that places an emphasis in adopting huskies and malamutes.

Dr. Posey’s cello was made in 2006 by local Salt Lake City maker Carrie Scoggins.