Laura Mercado-Wright

Laura has been a choir nerd since the age of seven, when she heard an audition notice on her hometown classical radio station for the San Antonio Children’s Choir and immediately knew she wanted in. After eight years in that ensemble, traveling the world and singing in three part harmony, Laura spent all four years of high school dedicated to the Texas All State Choir process (in three different cities), and after two years as first alternate, made it to second chair of the mixed ensemble her senior year at Westlake HS in Austin.

Then Laura went to the University of North Texas, with every intention of becoming a choir director, but after singing the role of Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutti as a sophomore, she was hooked on performing opera, and spent the rest of her undergraduate degree program studying vocal performance with a minor in theory.

After that, Laura picked up and moved to Washington, D.C. to be in the University of Maryland’s Opera Studio, a master’s degree program, where she studied acting, singing, dancing, stage combat, improvisation, Shakespeare, lots of different languages, and used all of it to audition for professional opera singing gigs after she graduated.

Fast forward through years of auditions and jobs performing opera, musical theater, chamber music, avant garde experimental music, solos with orchestras, joining professional choirs, and in 2011 Laura and her husband, Jason moved back to Austin, and she began teaching voice lessons in Eanes ISD, and since 2017 has maintained a private voice studio of singers from high school students through retirees.
Laura is an unapologetic enthusiast when it comes to choral literature, ensemble singing, vocal technique, and most importantly these days, the process and mindset of healthy and happy practicing.

When she’s not filling her home with squawks and sirens, she and Chef Jason love to cook, hike, fish, and watch nature and history shows on PBS together.

Laura’s other pursuits over the years include being a licensed massage therapist since 2003, founding a professional Christmas caroling company with tenor and composer Trevor Shaw, called Tinsel in 2015, and starting an Etsy account to sell slime and other homemade crafts in 2018.