Lawrence Ku

guitarist/composer lawrence ku was born raised in los angeles, california. he currently lives in shanghai, china where he is among the central figures in the growing jazz scene. he plays regularly at the jz club in shanghai (www.jzclub.cn) and is the music director at the jz school (www.jz-school.cn). he leads his own bands the lawrence ku septet (a group focusing on his original compositions) and the red groove project (a funk/groove band), is part of the far east quartet (a collaborative quartet involving musicians from shanghai and hong kong), the toby mak quintet, the alec haavik all-stars and the shanghai jazz orchestra. recently, the lawrence ku septet was featured at the helsinki jazz festival in june of 2005. previously, lawrence has resided in beijing, where he taught at the contemporary music institute and the midi school of music, and boston, where he received his music training at the longy school of music (m.a. in composition) and the new england conservatory of music. he has studied with such jazz greats as ben monder, charlie banacos, jerry bergonzi, george garzone, george lewis and carol kaye.