Born in Porto da Cruz, Madeira Island, Laura Silva Mendes began her musical studies at the age of six at the Associação Grupo Cultural Flores de Maio. Later, she started studying piano at the Conservatory – Escola das Artes Eng° Luiz Peter Clode, with Emesse Szepesi and later with Iryna Kózina, and organ with Halyna Stetsenko in the Professional Instrumentalist Course. In 2013, she began her Bachelor's degree in Piano at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, Belgium, with Polina Leschenko. In 2015, she started her Master's in piano with Polina Leschenko and Eliane Rodrigues, simultaneously pursuing a Bachelor's in organ with Joris Verdin at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. During these years, she took part in organ masterclasses with João Vaz, Ludger Lohmann, Michel Bouvard, among others. She has performed as a soloist and with orchestras in several European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, England, among others. In 2019, she began her Master's in organ with Shopie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin at the prestigious Royal College of Music in London, where she was a scholarship holder from the Eric Thompson Trust and the GDA Foundation. In 2021, she was honored with the Grant Fund Award by the president of the Royal College of Music, Colin Lawson. Currently, she is developing a project on Portuguese music for organ, recording and publishing works never before performed. In parallel, she performs as a concert organist and is a piano and organ teacher in London.
