Pianist LARA URRUTIA, a twenty-four-year-old young artist from Moreno Valley, California has been performing publicly in Southern California since she was a child. A frequent competition winner, she has appeared more than a dozen time as a soloist with symphony orchestras in the Los Angeles area, the first being at age eleven, playing Mozart’s Concerto No. 12. She has given several hundred solo recitals and has appeared in venues such as the Los Angeles Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Shrine Auditorium, and the Crystal Cathedral. She has been featured on Fox Channel 11’s “Good Day LA”, and has performed on the Redlands Bowl Stage as a winner of the Redlands Bowl Young Artists Competition. Ms. Urrutia has also performed Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra. This honor was a result of being named Grand Prize Winner in the University of Redlands Solo/Concerto Competition (Fall 2001).

In addition to a busy musical life in Southern California, Ms. Urrutia has concertized extensively in the country of Chile. Her most recent two-month South American solo tour was centered in Santiago. She has also appeared in numerous venues in Salzburg, Austria, (Fall 2002), as well as in Oahu, Hawaii (Spring 2006).

Her recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was released in the spring of 2000 as part of Pat Boone’s CD album. Ms. Urrutia came to the attention of Mr. Boone in November of 1999, during a performance of the Rhapsody in a benefit orchestra concert for the Billy Barty Foundation. Subsequently, Mr. Boone invited the seventeen-year-old Ms. Urrutia to record the piece for his new album.

Ms. Urrutia has been highly regarded for her dedicated and self-sacrificing work on behalf of needy children. Beginning at age twelve, Ms. Urrutia devoted herself to helping a young friend of the same age, who needed a heart-lungs transplant. She performed twenty-nine concertos on his behalf. Her second project was to raise funds for a ten-year-old girl who needed multiple brain surgeries.

Since 1998, she has been ardent about raising money for abused children from Child Help USA. Through her concerts she has also assisted in fund-raising for the Home Mechanical Ventilation Program, as well as for the City of Hope.

Her work came to the attention of the late Congressman Sonny Bono who along with members of the film industry such as Tom Selleck, Cheryl Ladd, John Stamos, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and others who are involved in philanthropic endeavors, have publicly celebrated her remarkable work. Fox TV and KNX News Radio have honored her as an outstanding citizen. She also received a special commendation from President Clinton for her note-worth contributions to society.

Graduating from Kings Chapel Academy in Moreno Valley at age fourteen as Valedictorian (1997), Ms. Urrutia continued on the path of academic excellence at the University of Redlands, where she received both her Bachelors (’03) and Masters Degrees (’06) in Piano Performance, studying piano from 1996 to 2006 with Professor Louanne Long. Her name appeared regularly on the Dean’s List, and was a recipient of the Leigh Endowed Piano Scholarship for six consecutive years.

Ms. Urrutia is also an accomplished violinist, accordionist, and an award-winning poet. A three-time winner of the Editor’s Choice Award, she was honored at the International Society of Poets Convention in Washington, D.C., in September 1998.

Currently, Ms. Urrutia is on faculty at the University of Redlands as both Accompanying Coordinator and piano instructor. She continues to perform in the Southland both as a soloist and collaborative artist. In addition to both faculty and solo recitals this summer, this August she will be featured as soloist with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra at the Redlands Bowl, performing Grieg’s Concerto in A minor.