He is a violist born in Saint Louis, Missouri who started studying the violin around the age of seven years old and switched to the viola when he was 12 years old and became a member of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra.
He took further studies at the Eastman School of Music followed by the University of Southern California before becoming a violist with the Miami String Quartet for a year. He then returned to education to study at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
In 1991 he became a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra but took a leave of absence forthe 1998-99season to perform as Principal Viola with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has also participated in several music festivals and chamber music series and is a founding member of the Lincoln String Quartet.
Recordings he has performed on include Moonlit Night by The Andover Chamber Music, Verse by Patricia Barber, Wagner: Overtures and Preludes and Brahms: Violin Concert/Sonata No. 3 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lullaby by Justin Roberts.
In the field of musical education he has been on the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts as a viola and chamber music teacher.
His wife is the violinist Qing Hou and they have a son.
Sources:
- https://cso.org/about/performers/chicago-symphony-orchestra/viola/lawrence-neuman/
- https://www.stokowski.org/Chicago_Symphony_Musicians_List.htm#Neuman-Lawrence
- https://intermission-the-cso.simplecast.com/episodes/team-player/transcript
- https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-09-16-0709120439-story.html
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/997509-Lawrence-Neuman
- https://www.roosevelt.edu/academics/faculty/profile/lneuman