Laurie S. Turley recently retired from the SAU9 public school district where taught K – 6 music for 20 years. Prior to that, she taught middle school music in Cape Elizabeth, Maine and K – 6 music in the parochial school system in Portland Maine, and taught in an art integration program throughout Boston’s inner city elementary schools.

After earning a Master’s Degree in Theatre Education from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, Laurie taught piano privately at the South Shore Conservatory of Music to earn a little extra money while her eldest child was an infant. It was this experience that led her to pursue a second degree in Music Education, as she soon discovered that teaching music was the most fulfilling aspect of education she had encountered to date. Upon moving to Maine, she enrolled at the University of Southern Maine when her second child was a year old, majoring in voice with Ellen Chickering, and minoring in piano with Janet Reeves.

Laurie started teaching part time in the evenings at Mountain Top Music in 2013, and has thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the MTMC community, not only teaching piano and voice there, but also taking lessons herself, as an adult beginner, first on the violin and then on the viola. Laurie is an example of the adage that it is “never too late to learn a new skill!” She is now the conductor of the Mountain Top Community Orchestra.

Laurie and her husband Ken are both composers and song writers, and have produced several CDs of original songs. Their music has been performed in the community in many venues, from local bars and concerts to weddings, and has been performed by the Mountain Top Community Orchestra.