Laura Harrison

MLITT STUDENT

Hometown
Hertfordshire, England

Education
BA (Hons) Music, University of Cambridge

Academic Interests
Through her time as a choral scholar at Cambridge, Laura became increasingly interested in the relationship between music and theology. She is curious in particular about the question of performance versus worship in sacred music, and the roles given to silence and music in church services today. She has also spent time exploring Wagner’s notion of the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ as the perfect synthesis of all art forms and consequently the vehicle for the deepest levels of catharsis and transcendental experience, with a particular focus on the religiously philosophical worldview that Wagner appears to promote in his final opera, Parsifal.

Other information
Before coming to St Andrews, Laura spent a year working for The Titus Trust, a Christian organisation that gives teenagers a chance to explore the Christian faith through activity holiday camps and school Christian meetings. She then spent an idyllic year improving her French, German and Italian in what she likes to think of as her own Grand Tour, or final swansong to Freedom of Movement. When not engrossed in all things operatic, Laura enjoys baking, walking and windsurfing.