Laura Clayton is an American composer and pianist. She was born in Lexington, Kentucky and studied composition at the Aspen Music School in Colorado. She earned a master’s of music in composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston and a doctorate of musical arts at the University of Michigan. Her style has been described as rhythmically complex with a sense of mystery and inspired by images of nature. Cree Songs for the Newborn, based on creole poems, was chosen to represent the United States at the 1980 UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.
Clayton has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA awards, two American Academy of Arts and Letters prizes and a MacDowell Fellowship, as well as grants from the Jerome Foundation, the University of Michigan and the Alice M. Ditson Fund.
