Biography
Dr. Laura “Missy” Curl is a soprano, musicologist, and voice pedagogue from Bethesda, MD. She has bachelor’s degrees in Italian Studies and Vocal Performance and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Pedagogy from the University of Maryland, College Park. She has a Master’s degree in Musicology from the Catholic University of America.
As a soloist, Missy has performed with the Northern Virginia Chorale, the Catholic University Sacred Music Concert Series, the Washington National Opera Institute for Young Singers, the National Philharmonic’s Summer Choral Institute, and the University of Maryland’s Summer Chorus, Bach Cantata Series, and Baroque Ensemble.
As an ensemble singer, Missy has performed works with the University of Maryland Chamber Choir, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductors such as Gianandrea Noseda, Helmuth Rilling, Nathalie Stutzmann, Laurence Equilbey, James Macmillan, Markus Stenz, Masaaki Suzuki, and Marin Alsop. She has also performed as a cantor, soprano section leader and schola cantorum member in sacred spaces such as the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Chevy Chase United Methodist Church, Fourth Presbyterian Church, the Basilica of St. Mary, St. Dominic’s Church, St. Bernadette’s Church, and Temple Micah.
As an instructor, Missy has co-taught courses such as Solo Vocal Literature and Vocal Pedagogy at the University of Maryland, and taught private voice lessons at the University of Maryland, the International School of Music, the Bullis School, and Belvoir Terrace.
Missy’s dissertation, entitled Exploring Instrumental Sounds in the Voice Studio: A Pedagogical Approach, approaches the sounds of plucked strings, bowed strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments through the lens of a singer in three different ways: onsets, closed quotients, and formants. As a researcher, Missy has received accolades such as the Voice Foundation’s 2025 New Investigator’s Research Forum Award and the 2026 Leon Thurman Human Compatible Learning Award. She was also selected to present her research at the 2026 Source Song Festival in Minneapolis.
As a musicologist, Missy has focused on the art song analysis of Henri Duparc, and how his two major influences, Richard Wagner and César Franck, informed his compositional style. She is also a writer for the Washington Classical Review.
Missy lives in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C. with her husband. For fun, she likes to cook, run in Rock Creek Park, and perform as part of her husband’s singer-songwriter project, Alexander Gallows.