Laura Pattillo
Laura Giesler Pattillo is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was born and raised in Pasco, Washington. The small town farm girl says that she took a great leap of faith when she decided to attend Brigham Young University’s School of Music to study vocal performance. About music, she has remarked, “Music is the art of emotion. It touches our hearts and enlightens our souls.”
She enjoyed college life for three years, studying opera and classical music, before getting married to a guy from back home, and giving up her college career. They decided to start their family right away, and before long, she had settled into being a stay-at-home mom.
Laura taught private vocal and piano lessons for several years before deciding that she needed to utilize her voice more. Through much prayer and fasting, she was guided along a path that eventually led her to American keyboardist and composer, Kurt Bestor, and his extraordinary talents. Kurt is known for his synthesizer-based Christmas music similar to Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, for writing music for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic games, and for his well-known song “Prayer of the Children,” to name but a few of his musical accomplishments.
She recorded and released her first CD called While He Lives I’ll Sing in August 2014. The leading LDS Bookstore, Deseret Book, added her CD to the products that they offer, and it is still available as an item on their bookshelves. Emmy Award-winning and Grammy-nominated arranger Kurt Bestor composed the arrangements for the songs. Laura chose songs that express her true inner feelings, and in collaboration with Bestor, each song on the CD paints an aural picture – similar to a mini movie – that make the stories that mean so much to her come alive for her listening audience. According to the Deseret Book product description, by “using a musical language that is less classical and more cinematic, the emotion of each piece becomes incredibly vivid and gives the album its distinct flavor and personality.”
The following year, she once again collaborated with Bestor on another project, and in November 2015, released a collection of Christmas songs on a CD called O Holy Night.
Laura continues to push forward with her vocal career by traveling and presenting firesides, house concerts, performing at fundraisers or singing as a guest artist for various local choirs and groups. She has commented, “As a Christian artist, my goal is to bring you a bit of Heaven on Earth.” She has also had the opportunity to sing in community shows such as South Pacific and Oklahoma!
With her primary responsibilities of being a devoted wife and a loving mother of five children, she managed to find the time to complete her studies online through BYU’s Bachelor of General Studies program. She has a degree in Creative Writing and uses her talents writing children’s books. She released her first ebook titled The Tale of Pee Wee Reese on Amazon in April 2016.
Laura’s music adventures and concert schedule can be found on her website or followed on her Facebook page. You can also listen to some of her tracks on her Soundcloud page.
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