Laura Ward is an accomplished collaborative pianist based in Philadelphia. A strong advocate for art song, she is a founding artistic director of Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest, and has been a vocal coach and accompanist at Washington Opera, The Academy of Vocal Arts, The Ravinia Festival, The Music Academy of the West, the Blossom Festival, the University of Maryland, and Temple University. She has also been the official pianist for the Washington International competition for singers and the Marian Anderson Award. She has performed at several international music festivals such as the Spoleto Festival in Spoleto, Italy and at the Colmar International Music Festival and Saint Denis Festival in France.

A native of Texas, Laura received her Bachelor of Music degree from Baylor University, Master of Music degree in Piano Accompanying at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Accompanying from the University of Michigan with Martin Katz. There she played with the Contemporary Directions, the modern music ensemble, and on occasion with the Ann Arbor Symphony. After the completion of her doctorate she began a long collaboration with the Hal Leonard Corporation. She is editor of Songs of Richard Strauss, Songs of Gabriel Fauré, and Songs of Johannes Brahms. She has also recorded numerous accompaniment CDs for the Hal Leonard Vocal Library Collections.