Lisa Lawson, violinist and violist, received a Bachelor of Music Degree from Peabody Conservatory, and a Master of Music Degree from University of Southern California. A naitive of Portland, Oregon, Lisa has performed concerts in the United States, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland, under conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Eiji Oue, David Zinman, Leon Fleischer, and James DePriest. She has performed as principal violist at festivals including the Tanglewood Institute, Aspen Music Festival, and Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, where she received the Guido Chigi prize. A resident of the Sacramento region since 1994, she performs as first violinist with the Sacramento Philharmonic and the Sacramento Opera.

A diverse musician, Lisa is proficient at playing jazz violin as well as singing. Her current musical passion is reserved for her baroque group, Sacramento Baroque Soloists, which she and her husband Michael founded in 2001, for celtic music, and for teaching. She has been teaching privately since 1994, currently teaching a select group of 20 students at the Pease Conservatory in Sacramento. Lisa's performance of the Bach Chaconne was praised as "delivered with a wonderfully personal feeling...remarkable for the amount of expression she conveyed." (William Glackin, Sacramento Bee)

In 1999 and 2000 the Lawsons received an Artists in the Schools grant to teach strings to 80 string students at John Morse School in Sacramento, where they pioneered the school's string program for three years.They continue educating students in the schools with their dynamic musical program Music Journey, which they have performed in schools throughout the Sacramento region.

Lisa lives near Ione with her cellist husband Michael and their two sons, Cameron and Liam. They live in a passive-solar straw-bale house, which thye built. She enjoys sailing and hiking when time allows. Her websites are www.lawsonmusic.com and sacramentobaroque.org .