Laufey returns to Virginia Arts Festival in a new partnership with Chartway Arena. The jazz singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer will be joined by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra on July 31, 2025. 

“As a musician, my goal is to bring jazz and classical music to my generation,” declares GRAMMY-winning composer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Laufey. In 2022, the Icelandic-Chinese artist’s trailblazing approach paid off, with a performance on Jimmy Kimmel LIVE! in support of her debut album Everything I Know About Love, sold-out tours of North America, Asia, and Australia, and she was the most streamed jazz artist on Spotify.

The Los Angeles-based Laufey (pronounced lāy-vāy) continued her story by writing and recording Bewitched, her second album. Inspired by jazz greats and classical masters while possessing a point of view that could only be conveyed by a 21st-century twenty-something, Bewitched represents an expansion of Laufey’s sonic palette. The album has gone on to break the record as the biggest debut for a jazz album on Spotify in history and earned a 2024 GRAMMY win for "Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.”

In the 2024/25 season, Finnish-British conductor Ross Jamie Collins returns to Iceland Symphony Orchestra for several engagements and debuts with Boston Symphony, Norrkoping Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Evergreen Symphony in Taipei, and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras. In summer 2025, Collins will conduct singer-songwriter Laufey’s ​‘A Night at the Symphony’ US tour, for concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Virginia Symphony and Chautauqua Symphony.

In 2023/24, Collins was a Dudamel Fellow with Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Conductor-in-Residence of Iceland Symphony Orchestra. In summer 2024, he was selected as one of two conducting fellows at Tanglewood Music Center.

Previous highlights included debuts with the Philharmonia Orchestra and in San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox series, a return to conduct the Turku Philharmonic and Colburn’s Zipper Orchestra, as well as assisting Maestro Salonen on tour with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Yuja Wang and Johan Dalene. Collins was a member of the Conducting Staff of San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and part of the Philharmonia’s Emerging Artist programme. 

Collins was part of the inaugural class of Salonen Fellows in the Negaunee Conducting Program at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. Before moving to Los Angeles in Autumn 2019 to study with Esa-Pekka Salonen, he studied with Jorma Panula at the Panula Academy in Finland and was a laureate of the VII International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition.

Supported by a scholarship from the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Ross has participated in numerous international conducting masterclasses. He has had the opportunity to conduct Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Vaasa City Orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia, MAV Symphony Orchestra, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra, Lappeenranta City Orchestra, St.Michel Strings and Camerata Antonio Soler.

Collins has worked closely alongside Sir Andrew Davis, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Edo de Waart, James Conlon, Ludovic Morlot, Rossen Milanov, Peter Oundjian, Peter Sellars, Grant Gershon, Yehuda Gilad, Yuja Wang and Ray Chen.

A cellist, pianist and baritone, Collins founded his own orchestra, Symphony Orchestra ROSSO, in 2017 and conducted his first full symphonic concert at age 15.

Heading to Chartway Arena to see Laufey? Let Hampton Roads Transit get you there without the worry of traffic and parking. Chartway Arena is served by HRT’s bus Routes 2 and 4. Hop on board for just $2 each way. Kids ride free with a paying adult. Plan your trip with HRT’s new online system map.