Laura Bibbs Comes into Her Own on Tour with Harry Styles The trumpeter and Boston Conservatory alum performed for record-breaking crowds across the U.S. and Europe.
By
Sarah Godcher Murphy
September 26, 2023
Trumpeter Laura Bibbs (fourth from right) joins Harry Styles and the rest of his band as they take a bow on stage at the RFC Arena in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Lloyd Wakefield
This past July, Boston Conservatory alum Laura Bibbs (B.M. 19, trumpet) found herself traveling abroad in a city she never thought she would visit, performing live with an artist she never imagined getting the chance to meet, in front of a crowd so enormous she could scarcely believe it.
At the RFC Arena in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Bibbs was sharing the stage with pop superstar Harry Styles, wrapping up the European leg of his Love on Tour, before an audience of 102,000 people. From her place in the horn section, she had a bird's eye view of the landscape: acres of screaming fans who evidently knew every line of Styles's songs and felt obliged to prove it by singing along as loudly as they could.
Bibbs says it's hard to find words for the sense of unreality she felt while performing in that show-and the many others that she played with Styles over the course of the tour, filling the largest arenas in Europe, night after night. Amazing doesn't quite cut it.
I don't even know how to describe the euphoria, she says. It was like a dream.
The concert in Reggio Emilia was an appropriately grand finale to Bibbs's collaboration with Styles, having first performed with him at Coachella in April 2022. (To this day, she doesn't know who recommended her for that gig, but would love to thank the person.) She subsequently was invited to join the North American leg of Love on Tour-which included a record-breaking run of 15 sold-out shows at both Madison Square Garden in New York and the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. The European leg of the tour followed in summer 2023.
Alum Laura Bibbs performed live and joined the Love Band for the North American and European legs of Love on Tour.
Lloyd Wakefield
It's really been a beautiful blossoming into myself. I'm so prepared, I know it. It's inside of me. It's finally like I'm just not afraid.
-Laura Bibbs
Of course, the high-profile gig has been a huge boost to Bibbs's career, but it's also changed the scale of her self-confidence. As a musician who has struggled with performance anxiety, touring with Styles has been a particularly huge success. Meeting the challenges of performing night after night-and having a blast in the meantime-has altered her perception of pre-show nerves. What used to feel like fear she now calls fuel.
I'm having so much fun that I can't be super anxious about performing, because I love what Im doing, she says. It's really been a beautiful blossoming into myself. I'm so prepared, I know it. It's inside of me. It's finally like I'm just not afraid.
Bibbs says she has always struggled with performance anxiety, and it worsened during her college years when the process of self-critique would veer off into self-doubt. When I was a student, I was so hard on myself. I remember struggling with my own inner turmoil as this teenager coming into my 20s-and having really supportive teachers, she says. They care about your wellbeing. They care about shaping you into good musicians and good artists.
Bibbs also found herself questioning the classical music trajectory that she had once imagined would be her career path. At the Conservatory, she sought-and found-opportunities to experiment with improvised music and create works that felt more authentic to her own life experience than traditional repertoire did. Professor Pierre Hurel's improvisation workshop, for one, made a lasting impression on Bibbs.
Hurel says the workshop is often an outlet for Conservatory students who, like Bibbs, want to put the repertoire aside for a while and express their own ideas.
When you play from the heart-when you improvise-nothing is written, so it's kind of putting your guts on the table. You're really opening up for people to hear what you came up with, he says. When Laura had a successful improv-and she had many-you could see she was very happy in a profound way, like spiritually uplifted by the experience. She really wanted to say something meaningful with her trumpet.
The improv workshop also helps relieve students of the pressure to constantly improve their technique. It's very common for students to feel incomplete, 24/7, because by definition you work on things you have not mastered yet . But the reality is they already have a lot to offer, Hurel says.
After graduating from the Conservatory in 2019, Bibbs moved to New York, where she began a career as a freelance musician and pursued a master's degree in contemporary performance from Manhattan School of Music, under the mentorship of trumpeter and composer John Faddis. As a freelancer, she has played on numerous session recordings and has performed live with artists ranging from Faddis to the songwriter and producer Cautious Clay.
On October 1, Bibbs will return to Boston Conservatory for Brass Weekend, a festival of master classes, workshops, and performances by visiting artists. Bibbs will speak with Assistant Professor of Horn Anne Howarth for a presentation called, fittingly enough, Making It in Music.
Bibbs has good advice for current students, and it's exactly what she needed to hear when starting out as an undergraduate back in 2015.
I would totally say to just, like, calm down. To just take a second. To be patient, be forgiving.
There were times she wasn't exactly sure how she was going to make it, Bibbs says, but she always knew that she would make it. If you have tha
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/05/2026
Liberty University on why broadcast technology isn't just a technical invest...
08/05/2026
COW Jobs: UGC, On-Camera Video Content
Brie Clayton May 7, 2026
0 Comments
UGC, On-Camera Video Content
April 17, 2026Documentary Editor - US,......
07/05/2026
Journalists reporting on Sudan are working in one of the most complex and fast-m...
07/05/2026
Multi-year partnership positions Victory+ as a free home for Dallas Cowboys orig...
07/05/2026
From sideline reporting to directing and producing, the talented sophomore is building a well-rounded foundation for a career in live sports production
In the ...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital has received two Future Best of Show awards at NAB Show 2026. The COBALT blueCORE platform was recognized by TV Tech, and the COBALT PACIFIC ULL-...
07/05/2026
ESPN analyst Mina Kimes will host the televised semifinals and finals of the 202...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI, the global film streaming platform, has selected Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner. Bitmovin's encoding infrastru...
07/05/2026
NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and the U.S. Soccer Federation have announced...
07/05/2026
Angel City Football Club (ACFC) and Victory have announced a regional broadcast partnership bringing live match coverage to fans across the greater Los Angeles...
07/05/2026
Spiideo has announced the launch of AI Highlights inside Spiideo Play, its automated sports production platform. AI Highlights combines video, event data, audio...
07/05/2026
Leostream Corporation has announced a unified remote access ecosystem for high-p...
07/05/2026
The Atlanta Dream has partnered with Victory to stream all locally broadcast Dream games for free, expanding the team's digital distribution strategy and g...
07/05/2026
Riedel Communications has announced the appointment of Marc Engroff as Chief Fin...
07/05/2026
SES and ARD, Germany's largest public broadcasting network, have announced a long-term extension of their satellite distribution partnership through 2039. U...
07/05/2026
UpLight Technologies delivers a flexible video and lighting system for a new televised sportLaunching the Pro Cheer League required more than creating a compell...
07/05/2026
Full Day Productions and GSE Worldwide have announced Spikes Under the Lights, a...
07/05/2026
Seit dem Start im Jahr 2023 hat DJ (Beta) das personalisierte H rerlebnis von 94...
07/05/2026
Da quando stata presentata nel 2023, DJ (beta) ha aiutato a definire un'esperienza d'ascolto pi personalizzata per 94 milioni di utenti Spotify Premi...
07/05/2026
Since launching in 2023, DJ (beta) has helped shape a more personalized listenin...
07/05/2026
Desde o lan amento em 2023, o DJ (beta) j ajudou a deixar a experi ncia de ouvi...
07/05/2026
From our earliest days, Spotify has been built on a simple principle: Great audio should be easy to reach. It's what's driven us to expand from music to...
07/05/2026
Asian and Pacific Islander artists continue to shape the global soundscape, pushing creative boundaries and connecting with fans worldwide. This Asian & Pacific...
07/05/2026
Company announce long-requested choir instrument
In the latest expansion of their Symphonic Elements series, UJAM have introduced an all-new vocal instrumen...
07/05/2026
Modular-inspired sound generation with digital control
Buchla have introduced Ziggy, a new compact synthesizer built around the company's complex oscill...
07/05/2026
Combines analogue voices with digital synthesis and sequencing
Polyend have announced Drums, a new hybrid analogue and digital drum machine that combines sy...
07/05/2026
Control surface now officially supports four DAWs
When Nektar launched the Panorama CS12 control surface, it worked exclusively with Apple's Logic Pro, ...
07/05/2026
In the first quarter 2026, SGL Carbon generated consolidated sales of 184.5 million, which was 49.8 million, or 21.3%, lower than in the prior year (Q1 2025: ...
07/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and Greenerwave achieve precise and fast ESA antenna characteriz...
07/05/2026
Two multi-role L3Harris products - the Red Wolf launched effects vehicle and SK...
07/05/2026
L3Harris will be developing key features of a secure and resilient digital infra...
07/05/2026
Alysa Liu and Shohei Ohtani Help Drive Viewership as 91 of the Top 100 Broadcast...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
Cobalt Digital Wins Two Future Best of Show Awards at 2026 NAB Show
Manufacturer Recognized by TV Tech and TVBEurope for Innovation in signal processing
Cobal...
07/05/2026
Software and hardware platforms, AI power and user-friendliness on show...
07/05/2026
Intinor will demonstrate its latest technical enhancements for the Direkt series at BroadcastAsia 2026. With a continued focus on reliable contribution and remo...
07/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that MUBI has chosen Bitmovin as its cloud VOD encoding partner, replacing MUBI's legacy on premises encoding setup to improve scalab...
07/05/2026
Meet Graduates from Berklees Class of 2026 Members of this years graduating class reflect on their proudest moments at Berklee and look ahead to whats next.
...
07/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/05/2026
At BroadcastAsia 2026, Interra Systems will demonstrate its latest innovations in automated quality control (QC), real-time monitoring, and captioning. The comp...
07/05/2026
At this year's Broadcast Asia, PlayBox Neo is set to unveil recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solution...
Laura Bibbs Comes into Her Own on Tour with Harry Styles The trumpeter and Boston Conservatory alum performed for record-breaking crowds across the U.S. and Europe.
