Courtney 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.

After completing a year as Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Arizona State University, 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 joined 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. Herself an alumna of the Eastern Music Festival, Dr. LeBauer served as a member of its faculty 2000-2024. She is now part of the founding artist faculty of the new Eastern Festival of Music.

While residing in Germany, Dr. LeBauer performed and taught with Julia Fischer in Vitznau, Switzerland as a part of her Musikferien for young talent; performed in Israel as mentor-violist with the youth ensemble La Chacone; and played throughout Germany representing the Zentralrat der Juden both as a member of the Klezmer-Caberet style Borofsky-Trio and with Duo partner, Pianist Elena Kuschnerova. With Kuschnerova she recorded a CD featuring works of Robert and Clara Schumann and performed in recital at the request of the Robert-Schumann Gesellschaft. From 2015-2019 Dr. LeBauer served as concertmaster of the Orchester der Landesregierung of Düsseldorf, and since 2021, back in America, as associate concertmaster of the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra. She continues to perform in solo, chamber, and orchestral venues throughout the USA and Europe.