Julia LaGrand
Julia LaGrand is a violinist and disability activist from Grand Rapids, MI. She has soloed with orchestras including the Holland Symphony, Kent Philharmonic and Baroque on Beaver Festival Orchestra, and has played in masterclasses for violinists including Midori and Stefan Jackiw. In 2020, she won first prize at the Bella International Music Competition, and was a winner of the Kennedy Center's 2024 International Young Musicians Competition. She appeared on NPR's From the Top and later co-hosted and co-created an episode of this show featuring young disabled musicians, which was featured in the Boston Globe as one of the "10 Most Memorable Classical Music Moments of 2023." In the 2023-2024 academic year, Julia was a Community Performance Fellow through the New England Conservatory of Music, and created community-based performances connecting disability and music. She attends Harvard University's dual degree program with New England Conservatory, where she studies violin performance with Miriam Fried. Past teachers include Danielle Belen and Grigory Kalinovsky, and other mentors include classical violinist Adrian Anantawan and designer-scholar Sara Hendren.
Julia speaks about disability in educational, commercial and conference settings, including recentaudiences at Northeastern University, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, University of Michigan, Michigan Department of Education, ExpressWorks International, the National Braille Challenge, and the national conference of the Council of State Administrators of
Vocational Rehabilitation.
