Laura Aswad is originally from Binghamton, New York. She received her B.A. in Theater from the State University of New York at Binghamton. From 1989 to 1993 she was the senior associate at International Production Associates, a management and production company in New York. While at IPA, she coordinated domestic and international tours for such artists as Sankai Juku, Philip Glass and the Philip Glass Ensemble, among others. She was also tour manager for international and domestic tours on many tours including, Hydrogen Jukebox by Philip Glass, Allen Ginsberg and Jerome Sirlin and the 1992 world tour of Einstein on the Beach by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass. From 1990 to 1993, she was the associate producer of Lincoln Center’s Serious Fun! Festival. From 1993 to 1995, she was company manager for Meredith Monk/The House Foundation for the Arts. She was responsible for all domestic and international bookings and production coordination of Meredith Monk’s solo concerts, ensemble tours and music-theater works. From 1996 to 2004 she was producer of the Lincoln Center Festival, the international summer performing arts festival. She has produced numerous productions for the Festival in all genres of the performing arts. Particular highlighted productions she produced include: The Peony Pavilion , the 20-hour Chinese opera presented in 1999, and Ta’ziyeh , a music drama from Iran in 2002.  She produced Dido and Aeneas and Orfeo directed by Chen Shi-Zheng for the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston; Violet Fire , a multi-media opera by Jon Gibson, and numerous other projects.  She is founder and executive director of Real Arts and Culture, a consulting and producing company for the performing arts. She is also an expert in providing non- immigrant visa services for performing artists, She is a Council Member of the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.