Laura Cortese is a beautifully expressive fiddler, a mesmerizing alto singer, and a deft songwriter with a knack for bringing together the groove and polish of urban music with universal themes of the old world. Returning to the Freight stage for the first time since her double bill with the McKassons in 2005, Laura has been steadily building a reputation for her dazzling musicianship and sprightly performances. The Boston Globe calls her joyful, wide-ranging musical style "A captivating, frisky mix of traditional grace and modern sophistication."

Laura's Irish American grandmother first handed her a fiddle at the age of four, and she apparently never looked back. An alumna of Alasdair Fraser's famed Valley of the Moon Fiddle Camp, she graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2002 and went on to play with various groups, including Tim O'Brien's Crossing, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, and the Celtic fiddle trio Halali. While her 2004 CD debut, Hush, featured pop-inspired arrangements of traditional Celtic music, Laura's more recent CDs, like even the lost creek (2006), are centered on her own confident originals.