Origin Thunder Bay, Canada Name Lauri Conger Associated acts Parachute Club | Years active 1970s-1988 Instruments Keyboard Genres Pop music, Dance music | |
Occupation(s) Songwriter, keyboardist Music group The Parachute Club (1982 – 1987) Nominations Juno Award for Songwriter of the Year Music director Dark Lullabies, Calling The Shots Similar Lorraine Segato, Billy Bryans, Margo Davidson, Jeanne Moreau | ||
Lauri Conger is notable primarily as the keyboardist and one of the principal co-writers of most of the songs of the Parachute Club.
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History
Lauri Conger is a native of Thunder Bay, where she began her professional music career in the 1970s. She received early piano and dance training in Port Arthur, Ontario, prior to its merger into Thunder Bay, and was a graduate of Hillcrest High School.
Conger moved to Toronto, where she and Lorraine Segato were members of Mama Quilla II. In 1982, Conger and Segato, along with percussionist Billy Bryans, formed the nucleus of what would become the Parachute Club. Concurrently, in the early 1980s, Conger was developing a reputation as a solo and duo performer on the Canadian folk music circuit.
Conger and Lorraine Segato, together with other band members and lyricist Lynne Fernie, wrote of most of the group's songs, including the song for which the group is best known, "Rise Up".
Conger was a band member during the production of its three albums, released between 1983 and 1986, but left the group in mid-1987. Her final performance was before the Duke and Duchess of York in Toronto. She then trained in Santa Fe, New Mexico to become a registered massage therapist. She rejoined the band in July, 1988, for what would be its final performances at Toronto's Ontario Place.
Following her departure from the group and despite her significant contributions to music, Conger did not continue in a prominent role as a professional musician or songwriter. She returned to Canada and to music in 1988, when she received funding from the Canada Council "to pursue a musical focus in First Nations music/rhythms".