BIO

Lauren Elizabeth Baba is a violinist, violist, composer, arranger, and improviser living in Los Angeles, California. Specializing in performing and composing creative improvised music, she is equally experienced in jazz, classical, folk, avante-guarde, chamber, pop, and experimental styles.

Baba is composer, conductor, and director of her 17-piece experimental big band, theBABAorchestra. As one of the up-and-coming female big band composers and bandleaders, she has gained critical acclaim and recognition from the creative music scene. Highlights include album reviews in Downbeat Magazine, JAZZIZ Magazine, LA Weekly, All About Jazz, and March 2018 Indie Life Feature in Downbeat. Baba has received commissions through Idaho State University (2020), Viewpoint High School (2019), West Ranch High School (2016), and for “Marigold”, which was commissioned by the Los Angeles Jazz Society through the 2018 New Note Artist Award and premiered at the 2018 Angel City Jazz Festival at Ford Theater in Los Angeles, CA; recorded on theBABAorchestra’s 2nd album “Marigold.” Baba was recently awarded the 2022 “Fundamental Freedoms Commission” from the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers [ISJAC] and will premier at the 2022 ISJAC Jazz Symposium in Austin, Texas. theBABAorchestra highlight performances include the Hammer Museum’s JAZZPOP Series, Angel City Jazz Festival’s Jazz Night, CalArts Wild Beast Concert Series, Cooks Chapel’s Live Jazz Nite Series, ArtShareLA, and Blue Whale. Baba’s original big band compositions have been performed by numerous high schools and colleges across the county and has been featured as guest conductor of the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra [California Jazz Conservatory]. She currently is curating a new Los Angeles music series called “Big Band Nights” that headlines three big bands in one night – creating a space for big band leaders to perform and share music and ideas and to build a strong music community. Baba received the 2012 Young Jazz Composers Award for her work “144”, which appears on theBABAorchestra’s debut album “Another Ride on the Elephant Slide.”

Baba performs and appears in various film scores, commercial soundtracks, music videos, television shows and albums; highlights including Hidden Figures (Motion Picture soundtrack), Despicable Me 3 (Motion Picture soundtrack), Insidious 2 (Motion Picture soundtrack), American Idol, The Voice (Live performances), NBC’s Songland, Glee, Luke Cage (TV series soundtrack), BROCKHAMPTON (“iridescence” album, Coachella), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV series soundtrack), Adele (2017 Grammy Awards), The Weeknd (2016 Oscars), Shawn Mendes (2016 American Music Awards), Insidious 2 (Motion Picture soundtrack), Annabelle (Motion Picture soundtrack), Iggy Azalea (“Digital Distortion” album), fun. (iTunes Session), R.P.M. by Sasha Pieterse, Mary J. Blige Christmas Special. Recent live performances include Dave Matthews Band, Ry X, Karen O and Danger Mouse, Spiritualized, The Little Mermaid Live to Film (Hollywood Bowl), Death to Stalin Live to Film (ACE Hotel), Punch-Drunk Love Live to Film (ACE Hotel), Van Dyke Parks, Inara George, The Brazil You Never Heard, Sketchy Black Dog, Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, Gregg Bendian, Mike Keneally, American Youth Orchestra, and Postmodern Jukebox. Baba is violist of Vitamin String Quartet and performs and records with them regularly.

Baba has composed and arranged for several short films, commercials and movies; highlights including string quartet arrangements for Demi Lovato, The All American Rejects, and Chiodos as well as “BARBIE Mariposa and the Fairy Princess”, “Waking”, and “Artificial Sweetener”. Her chamber quartet piece “There Once Was A Giant” was included on the 2012 California Institute of the Arts Jazz CD, recorded at Capitol Records, and she has been commissioned to arrange her original compositions for various schools, including music ensembles at Waldorf School and Viewpoint School. Baba performs and composes for numerous original jazz and contemporary ensembles; including Similar Fashion, GurriSonic Orchestra, Thelonious Monkey, Vardan Ovsepian Chamber Ensemble and ROVA Quartet; and also co-leads, composes and performs with River Song Quintet, a jazz chamber ensemble. The ensemble’s highlights include commisioned work and performance with poet David Baker at REDCAT, Denison University’s Tutti Music Fesitval, and the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. She has also collaborated with various dance and theater groups including “Glass Bang,” “Lost in Luv,” “Edward’s House of String,” “Loose Gravel,” and was the music director, arranger, and violinist for the theater production “I Should Have a Party for All the Thoughts I Didn’t Say”. Baba’s ensembles Istanbul and River Song Quintet have collaborated with choreographer Rebecca Lemme, composing, recording, and performing live original soundtracks for her dance pieces “as may be felt (2015),” “Metanoia (2014),” “Retrouvaille (2013),” “The Fragments (2016),” and “until them if not before (2013).” She has toured Europe with the Four Seasons La Prima Vera Symphony Orchestra as co-concert master, and was the featured soloist on Vivaldi’s Concerto No. 1 from The Four Seasons with the San Diego City Ballet Orchestra. Baba has toured and performed world music including Balkan, Eastern European, Persian, and Irish with international touring artists, including MESTO Arabic Orchestra, Marco Antonio Solis, Ebi & Shadmehr, Almer Imamovic, and Orchestra Italiana del Cinema.

Baba is a board member of Los Angeles Jazz Society, as well as the ISJAC “Shorts” organization, and has been an adjudicator at Reno Jazz Festival and faculty jazz string instructor at ACE Oakwood School and Stanford Jazz Workshop. She has also appeared as a guest artist for various schools and organizations, such as speaker for “Women in Jazz” Forum at California Institute of the Arts. Baba studied improvised music on violin and viola and jazz composition at California Institute of the Arts where she received her BFA in Jazz Performance. Her teachers include Joey Sellers, Jamie Rosen, Larry Koonse, David Roitstein and Paul Novros.

Bio PDF

RESUME

TELEVISION & MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

The Voice (Season 9 – 17) | (with John Legend, Michael Bublé, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Hudson, Lady Antebellum) | (2015 - 2019) | violin, viola

American Idol (Season 16) | (2019) | viola

Kelly Clarkson Show | (2019) | violin

Songland | (2019) | violin

Mulan | “Reflection” | (2019) | viola

Lauv | “Drugs & The Internet” | (2019) | violia

America's Most Musical Family | (2019) | viola

Vitamin String Quartet | Music Videos | (2019) | viola

Tennyson | “Uh Oh!” | (2019) | violin

Gaby Moreno | “Across the Borderline (with Jackson Browne)” | (2018) | viola

A Star is Born | (2018) | viola

BROCKHAMPTON | Coacholla | (2018) | viola

Vitamin String Quartet E3 LIVE | NOVO Theater | (2018) | viola

Adele | Grammys | (2017) | violin

Shawn Mendes | American Music Awards | (2016) | viola

The Weeknd | The Oscars 88th Academy Awards | (2016) | violin

X Ambassadors | “Unsteady” | (2016) | viola | music video

Highway 5 | (2015) | violin | feature film

Glee | (2014) | violin

Jimmy Kimmel Live | (2014) | viola | Jenny Lewis

Mary J. Blige Christmas Special | A Mary Christmas | (2013) | violin

Sasha Pieterse | “R.P.M” | (2013) | violin

CLASSICAL & CONTEMPORARY HIGHLIGHTS

Avril Lavigne | (2019) violin | Greek Theater

Karen O & Danger Mouse | (2019) viola | ACE Theater

Vitamin String Quartet | (2014 – 2020) viola | NOVO Theater, UPROXX, SOFAR, Soho House

BROCKHAMPTON | (2018) viola | NOVO Theater

Dave Matthews Band | (2018) viola | Hollywood Bowl

Yoshiki | (2018) viola | Microsoft Theater

Death of Stalin | Live to Film | Wordless Music | (2018) viola | ACE Hotel

American Youth Symphony | Rite of Spring | Gambit | (2017) violin | Walt Disney Concert Hall

Little Mermaid | Live to Film | Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (2016) violin | The Hollywood Bowl

Punch-Drunk Love | Live to Film | Wordless Music (2016) viola | ACE Hotel

MESTO Arabic Orchestra | (2016) violin | Oman Opera House with guest Muhammad Assaf

Postmodern Jukebox | (2016) viola | Black Hole Sun | Como La Flor | Dream On

Gurrisonic Orchestra | (2014- present) viola | Blue Whale | The Ford Theater | Albums · Jose Gurria’s Gurrisonic: Equinox Music (2014)

Spirit Strings | (2015-2016) viola | Bread Theater | Room 5 | Albums · Spirit Strings (2015)

The Orchestre Surreal | (2015) violin | Alva's Showroom

Dorian Wood | (2014-2017) violin | MOUSER sessions Diablo · Don't Forget Me · Pianos & Bricks | Grand Performances

Soko | (2014) viola | The Theater at ACE Hotel The Art of Elysium's GENESIS

Led ZepAgain | (2014) viola | Candlelight Pavilion

George Sarah | (2014) viola | The Downtown Playground

Molly Thompson | (2014) violin | Carlsbad Music Festival Village Walk

Vinny Golia Large Ensemble | (2014) vioin | REDCAT

I Should Have a Party for All the Thoughts I Didn’t Say | (2013-2016) violin, musical director, arranger | Club Monte Cristo AvLA // Avant Los Angeles | The Alexandria Hotel

Kids on the Mountain | (2013-2014) violin | Atwater Farmers Market | West Hollywood Library Children's Concert

A Feast of Lights | (2013) violin | Saddleback College Orchestra

Orchestra Italiana del Cinema | (2013) viola | Royce Hall Beyond La Dolce Vita

Loose Gravel | (2013) viola | Broad Stage

Ebi & Shadmehr | (2013) viola | NOKIA Theatre

Glass Bang | (2013) violin | Gawdafful National Theater

The Celestial Opera Company | (2013) viola | Orpheus and Eurydice

Philip Dizack: CD Release | (2013) viola | Blue Whale

Cage Quartet | (2012) violin | The Window John Cage Tribute Concert

Mary’s Stride | (2012) viola | DreamSpot at DanceSpot

Robinson | (2012) violin | The Mint

SAGA Strings | (2012-2017) electric violin, viola | Hallmark Channel

Sketchy Black Dog | (2012-2013) viola, violin | Baked Potato | 98 Bottles | McKennas

Edward’s House of String | (2011-2012) viola | REDCAT: NOW Festival | Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum

Aaron Schonberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 | (2011)

The Airborne Toxic Event with Orchestra | (2011) viola | Gibson Amphitheatre

Xenakis | Achorripsis | (2011) violin | REDCAT

Mike Keneally’s The Universe Will Provide | (2011) violin | REDCAT

Bare Show | (2011) violin | short film premier

Almer Imamovic’s Balkan Band | (2011) violin | 2nd Annual Bosana Fundraising Concert

Gubaidulina Festival | Impromptu | Offertorium | (2011) violin | REDCAT

Ahmad Nabizadeh’s Persian Band | (2010) violin | 14th Annual Mehregan Festival

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! | (2010) solo violin | musical

Elegy for Hannalore | (2010) dance improviser soloist | multi-media piece

Four Seasons La Prima Vera Symphony Orchestra | (2009) violin soloist, co-concert master | Italy tour

Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring (Suite for 13 Instruments) | (2009)

Roma Gala String Quartet | (2009) principal violinist

Dream: The Musical | (2007) dancer/actor | musical

Taming of the Shrew | (2007) violin soloist | Saddleback College

San Diego City Ballet Orchestra | (2006-2009) violin The Nutcracker | (2009) violin soloist The Four Seasons

Saddleback Faculty Dance Shows | (2006-2008) violin soloist | Saddleback College

RECORDING HIGHLIGHTS

Ringo Starr | “What’s My Name” | (2018) | viola

Angel Olsen | “All Mirrors” | (2018) | viola

Vitamin String Quartet | “Performs Bjork” | (2018) | viola |

Days of our Lives | (2018) | viola | TV series episode soundtrack

Despicable Me 3 | (2017) | viola | motion picture soundtrack

GeoStorm | (2017) | violin | motion picture soundtrack

Hidden Figures | (2016) | violin | motion picture soundtrack

Luke Cage | (2016) | violin | TV series soundtrack

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | (2016) | violin | TV series soundtrack

Money Monster | (2016) | violin | motion picture soundtrack

SaltFlatRockLove | (2016) | violin | music album

Fell Runner | (2016) | violin, viola | music album

Iggy Azalea | “Digital Distortion” | | (2015) |

Insidious 2 | (2015) | viola | motion picture soundtrack

The Other Side of the Door | (2015) | violin | feature film soundtrack

Rachel Antonoff: Fall 2014 Video | (2014) | violin | Fashion Week film

Blackberry Tounges | (2014) | violin | Blackberry Tounges album

Me Aside | Kate Coppola | (2014) | viola | music video

Fallout: Nuka Break – Red Star | (2013) | viola | short film

Waking | (2013) | violin, ukelele | feature film soundtrack

Paseos | (2013) | violin, viola | commercial TOMS shoes

Whistles of the Dead | (2013) viola | Red Robot album

Died 100 Times | (2012) | violin | short film

fun. | “iTunes Session” | (2012) violin | Capitol Records

Venetian Wonder | (2010) | violin | commercial

Dear Babushka | (2011) | violin | short film soundtrack

Little Odessa | (2010) | violin | short film soundtrack

The Once and Future Bride | (2010) | violin | short film soundtrack

Simon Says Let’s Stop Climate Change! | (2010) violin | short film soundtrack

Life in Reverse | (2010) | violin | Almer&Nirvan album

Sounds People Can Hear | (2009) | violin | The New Limb album

JAZZ & IMPROVISATION HIGHLIGHTS

ROVA Quartet :: Orkestrova – No Favorites | (2018) violin | Zebulon Cafe Angel City Jazz Festival

Samantha Boshnack: Seismic Belt | (2018) violin, viola | The Royal Room Earshot Jazz Festival

Vardan Ovsepian Chamber Ensemble (VOCE) | (2011-present) viola, violin | Blue Whale | Los Angeles Union Station | Albums · Dreaming Paris: Theme and Variations (2013)

Ya-Ya | (2016-present) arranger, violin, musical director | The Blue Whale

Vaud and the Villians | (2014-2017) violin | San Jose Jazz Festival | The Chapel | Ashkenaz

Storytelling Band | (2012-2015) violin, voice | REDCAT Studio: Summer | 1642 Bar | The Moose Lodge

Gregg Bendian | (2011 & 2013) violin | Baked Potato | California Institute of the Arts

Baba-Rowan Large Ensemble | (2010-2016) musical director, composer, conductor | The Wild Beast: 2013 Concert Series | Art Share Los Angeles | CalArts Jazz CD 2011

Derby Dueling Piano Show | (2010-2014) electric violin soloist | tri-weekly entertaiment show

theBABAorchestra

Los Angeles Jazz Society “New Note” Commissioned Artist | (2018) | 45-min commissioned suite for theBABAorchestra

Electric Squeezebox Orchestra – guest artist and conductor Lauren Elizabeth Baba| (2018) | theBABAorchestra repertoire

Downbeat Magazine March 2018 Indie Life Feature | (2018) | Lauren Baba & theBABAorchestra interview

JAZZIZ | (2018) | write up & feature of theBABAorchestra’s “Another Ride on the Elephant Slide” and “144” featured “Song of the Day”

Art Rockin’ Magazine | (2018) | review of theBABAorchestra’s “Another Ride on the Elephant Slide”

On The Scene SF/O | (2018) | podcast interview

Somethin’ Else! | (2018) | KSBR radio interview

Downbeat Editors’ Picks December 2017 | (2017) | review of theBABAorchestra’s “Another Ride on the Elephant Slide”

Bird is the Worm | (2017) | review of theBABAorchestra’s “Another Ride on the Elephant Slide”

LA Weekly | (2017) | review of theBABAorchestra

t.i.m.e. [the immediate measurement (of) energy] | (2016) | commissioned by West Ranch High School

ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award | (2012) | original composition 144

ARRANGER/COMPOSER

Tango Secretum | (2020) arranger | REDCAT Gala

Timur and the Dime Museum | (2019) arranger | Nueva Cancion Project: Songs of Protest and Resistance | Beth Morrison Projects

Emo Nite & Emo Nite Day | (2017) composer, viola | All American Rejects, Demi Lovato, Craig Owens

Artificial Sweetener | (2015) composer, violin, viola | short film

Barbie Mariposa and The Fairy Princess | (2013) additional composer | Mattel animated feature film

Song a Day for a Month | (2014-2015) composer, violin, viola, mandolin, vocals

CalArts Jazz CD 2012 | (2012) composer, viola | Capitol Records | There Once Was a Giant

CalArts Jazz CD 2011 | (2011) composer | Capitol Records | 144

CalArts Composer Collective | (2011) composer | founding member

AWARDS, HONORS, REVIEWS & COMMISSIONS

Idaho State University | (2020) | original big band commission

Viewpoint School | (2020) | original big band commission

Waldorf School | (2019) | original composition arrangement commission

Composers at Play | (2015) | podcast interview

Today's Women | (2010) | magazine interview

Spotlight on Performers on KSBR 88.5 FM | (2010) | November edition

Casey Family Foundation Scholarship in Jazz Composition | (2009) | Honorable Mention

Annual Celtic Fiddle Competition | (2006) violin | 3rd place finalist

MASTERCLASSES GIVEN

Lauren Elizabeth Baba | (2018) Southwestern Academy | (2016) Oakwood School Jazz Masterclass

River Song Quintet | (2015) University of Reno Jazz Masterclass | (2015) Denison University Jazz Masterclass | (2015) California Institute of the Arts Jazz Forum | (2014) University of Oregon Jazz Masterclass

Gregg Bendian's At Least 10 Destinations Glow for bowed vibraphone and violin | (2011) California Institute of the Arts

TEACHING, MUSIC LIBRARIAN & NON-PROFITS

Stanford Jazz Workshop | (2019) | string instructor

Los Angles Jazz Society | (2019) | board-member

Reno Jazz Festival | (2019) | adjudicator

Academy of Creative Education (ACE) at The Oakwood School | (2017) | taught & arranged music for elementary school chamber ensemble | prepared for concert

Rhodes School of Music | (2014-2017) | private violin & viola teacher | founded and developed Mini Music program designed for ages 3-5 teaching all basic music concepts

Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School | (2013-2015) | taught K-5th grade classes general music | planed, developed, and taught lessons

Mrs. Parr’s Piano Studio | (2006-2009) | taught Music Theory one on one and in groups, beginning to advanced | organized teaching materials | hired and trained new teachers

Librarian | (2005-2010) | Saddleback College Jazz Studies | organized, filed, and copied music scores and paperwork | weekly rehearsal duties

Music Student Representative | (2006-2009) | Saddleback College Angels for the Arts

South Coast Symphony | (2007-2009) | office manager | ticket sales and customer service to patrons | filed, copied, and organized office

Freckled Frog Learning Center | (2008) | developed, planned, and directed Dance Program and Music Program for children ages 6 months to 7 years | developed clientele | hired and trained teachers

EDUCATION

Banff Center for Arts and Creativity| Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music (2017)

California Institute of the Arts | Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz Performance: Violin, Viola & Composition (2012)

Saddleback College | AA in Violin Performance (2010) | AA in Dance and Performing Arts (2010)

Resume PDF