Courtney E. LeBauer

Courtney Elise LeBauer – praised by the Rheinische Post for “…her stirring performance…which was the triumph of the evening“, began studying the violin at the age of six. While still in high school, she was asked to join the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, becoming the youngest musician ever to have joined its ranks. Dr. LeBauer earned her Bachelor of Music summa cum laude from Rice University, her Master of Music with highest honors from the University of Michigan, and her Doctorate of Musical Arts from The Cleveland Institute of Music. As a Fulbright Scholar, she studied at the Robert-Schumann-Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf and the Musikhochschule Köln. Her main mentors include Kathy Winkler, Paul Kantor, Bill Preucil, Ida Bieler, and Martin Katz.

While completing her doctorate, LeBauer taught violin and viola at the Cleveland School of the Arts. Having just received her D.M.A, she was asked to come to Tempe, AZ as Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Arizona State University. Following this one-year position, she returned to Germany in 2004, shortly thereafter joining the faculty of Düsseldorf´s Clara-Schumann-Musikschule, where she taught for 15 years.

In 2019, she returned to America after being offered a position on the music faculty of Converse University, where she is Associate Professor of Violin and Viola and chair of the string department. At Converse University, Dr. LeBauer re-established and is the violinist of the university’s resident piano trio, The Converse Trio.

A respected and sought-after recitalist and chamber musician in Europe and America, Dr. LeBauer has performed and taught with Julia Fischer in Vitznau, Switzerland as a part of her Musikferien for young talent, and performed throughout Germany representing the Zentralrat der Juden as a member of the Klezmer-Caberet style Borofsky-Trio, as well as with Duo partner, Pianist Elena Kuschnerova. LeBauer and Kuschnerova recorded a CD featuring works of Robert and Clara Schumann for which the duo was highly praised and invited to perform as part of their representative chamber music series by the Schumann Gesellschaft Düsseldorf.

LeBauer has performed with numerous American and European symphonic and chamber orchestras both as a member of their first violin sections, and as soloist. Even taking up the baton, she also worked with the Düsseldorf U16 youth orchestra for 3 years as its assistant conductor. From 2015-2019 Dr. LeBauer served as concertmaster of the Orchester der Landesregierung in Düsseldorf, Germany, and back in America, she is associate concertmaster for the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra. She continues to perform in solo, chamber, and orchestral venues throughout the USA and Europe.

LeBauer has given masterclasses and adjudicated competitions in Germany and throughout the US. Education being a passion of hers, she is especially proud of the successes of her students, which include going on to masters and doctoral work at major conservatories, earning graduate assistantships, founding the Chamber Music Society of San Francisco, and earning From-the-Top and Fulbright grants.