Laura Usiskin (she/her) enjoys a versatile career as a cellist and educator. Her playing has taken her to concert halls throughout the United States and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Palazzo Chigi Saracini, Symphony Hall (Boston), Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theatre, Barge Music, Steinway Hall, and Klavierhaus. Usiskin is a member of the Bayberry String Quartet as well as the Atlanta-based new music group ensemble vim and the touring ensemble Astralis.

While completing an Artist-In-Residency with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, Usiskin founded and served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Montgomery Music Project, an El Sistema strings program in Montgomery, Alabama. The program, now more than 10 years old, has given intensive string instruction to hundreds of low-income children across three counties. She has held faculty positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham-Southern College, Alabama School of Fine Arts, and STEP Birmingham, and she has nurtured a private cello studio for more than twenty years.

Usiskin graduated from Columbia University cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior, The Juilliard School with a Master of Music, and Yale University with a Doctor of Musical Arts. She lives in a circular house in Atlanta with her husband and two children.