San Francisco Bay Area jazz vocalist Laura Karst used to surprise her audiences when they learned that, by day, she was the Chair of a prominent college’s French department, up until her retirement in 2017. She enjoyed her day job, but singing jazz has been her greatest love for the past 20 years. Her 2010 debut solo album, Little Did I Dream, was a labor of that love, and the result of years of serious study of the craft of vocal jazz. Now that she is retired from teaching, she is involved in numerous vocal activities, both jazz and classical. She released her second solo album of jazz vocals, Dancing in Darkness, in 2022, and it has garnered very positive reviews from jazz critics. (See “Press/Reviews” page on her website for some examples and features.)

Laura is a seasoned solo performer, having headlined at a number of Bay Area jazz venues, including, to name a few, Angelica's Main Stage in Redwood City, Café Pink House jazz club in Saratoga, the elegant Lobby Lounge of the San José Fairmont, Tarragon in Sunnyvale, Sumika in Los Altos, the Octavia Lounge supper club in San Francisco, and the Tabard Theatre in San José. In 2017, Laura was the invited guest artist at the Hilo Bay Café in Hawai'i, and she has also performed in several jazz clubs in Paris, such as Autour de Midi et Minuit, Péniche le Marcounet, Le Caveau des Légendes, Le Café Universel, and La Crêperie ELO.

Laura has studied solo jazz voice with the internationally acclaimed jazz educator and clinician Roger Letson for many years, in his workshops and master classes in California and in France. Laura also had the honor of singing in the prestigious and award-winning 6-member vocal jazz ensemble, Vocal Flight, under Letson’s direction. This group won two major national awards during Laura’s tenure with them: First Place at the 2007 Reno Jazz Festival, and DOWNBEAT magazine’s 2008 “Outstanding Performance” award.

From 2014-2019, Laura sang in the award-winning 5- and 6-member vocal jazz ensemble JAZZ-ology, under the direction of Dr. Stephanie Austin. During Laura's tenure with this group, they won DOWNBEAT magazine's 2018 and 2017 national first place award in its category, and also DOWNBEAT's 2019 and 2016 "Outstanding Performance" award. In 2017 her group was selected as one of six national finalists by the Monterey Jazz Festival, for its "Next Generation" competition. In 2018 they performed a sold-out show at Club Bonafide in Manhattan, receiving a standing ovation. In 2019 the group was one of the six vocal jazz ensembles in the nation invited to perform at the Jazz Education Network's international convention in Reno, Nevada. Also in 2019, they released their album, Feelin' Good, and went on a 5-city concert tour of jazz clubs in France, where they received standing ovations and encores at each venue. In the Fall of 2019 Laura retired from singing with this group, in order to focus more on her solo projects, but she continues her work as JAZZ-ology's manager, and joined them on their France and Spain tours in 2022 and 2024, respectively.

Laura has also studied jazz solo voice with Madeline Eastman and Kate McGarry, as well as with renowned European jazz vocalists Thierry Péala and Laurence Saltiel in master classes in France.

As a lyricist, Laura has collaborated for many years with the award-winning, European jazz composer and vocalist, Loïs Le Van. His 2019 album, Vind, features exclusively Laura's lyrics, and was selected as Album of the Month in Jazz News Magazine  in October 2019, with the comment, "Karst's lyrics blend poetry with music". Laurent Bonnefoy of Jazz In and Radio 16 (France) wrote of those lyrics, “[Karst] chisels the texts into genuine stories containing powerful messages”.