Bio

Mikayla Lao is a young composer and pianist from Northern Virginia. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in composition at James Madison University, studying composition with Dr. Jason Haney and Dr. Eric Guinivan and piano with Dr. Lori Piitz. In addition to composition and classical piano, she also plays jazz piano and is an amateur violinist.

Despite being only a second-year college student, Mikayla has already accumulated several musical accomplishments. In 2023, her high school orchestra performed one of her pieces, “La Noche Escarlata,” at the Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) composition festival. In 2025, Mikayla composed and performed a piece called “The Hymns We Weave” for artist Indira Allegra’s exhibition Freshwater Hymns: Rituals of Becoming, where it premiered at the closing event. As a co-winner of the 2024-2025 JMU Orchestra Competition, her piece “When the Moon Met the Sea” premiered at JMU’s 2025 Spring String Thing event.