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Dr. Amy Laursen is the Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of South Dakota. She joined the University of South Dakota in the fall 2017 as an Adjunct Professor in the music department teaching Written Theory and an online section of World’s Music; and was hired as the Assistant Professor of Horn beginning in the Fall of 2018. She currently is the Principal Horn in the Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra (IA), substitute horn with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra (IA), and substitute horn with the Billings Symphony Orchestra (MT). 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 and has performed at numerous regional and international conferences.
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.
In the fall of 2015, Dr. Laursen completed her DMA in Horn Performance from 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. Additionally, while at UNT she 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 and was heavily involved in the Music and Medicine program working with Dr. Kris Chesky.
Dr. Laursen received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Wyoming in 2006 and a master’s in Horn Performance from UNT in 2008. Before returning to UNT to begin her doctoral degree, she taught elementary general music, band, and orchestra for two years in Wyoming. She has taught private lessons in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, in Arkansas, Iowa, and South Dakota. Dr. Laursen is happily married to Dr. Todd Cranson, and together they have a dog, Joey. She enjoys gardening, yoga, and cooking.
Horn, Music Theory, and Music Education.
History of the horn, hornists, and pedagogues
Music and Medicine
