Lauri Conger

Lauri Conger
Origin	Thunder Bay, Canada
Genres	Pop, dance
Occupation(s)	Songwriter, keyboardist
Instruments	Keyboard
Years active	1970s-1988
Associated acts	Parachute Club

Lauri Conger is notable primarily as the keyboardist and one of the principal co-writers of most of the songs of the Parachute Club.

Lauri Conger is a native of Thunder Bay, where she commenced her professional music career in the 1970s. She received her early piano and dance training in Port Arthur, Ontario, prior to its merger as a component of Thunder Bay, and was a graduate of Hillcrest High School in that city.

Conger continued her career in 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.

While with the Parachute Club, Conger was a co-writer, mainly with Lorraine Segato, other band members and lyricist Lynne Fernie, of most of the group's songs, including the song for which the group is best known, "Rise Up".

Conger stayed with the band through its three albums, released between 1983 and 1986, but left the group in mid-1987, where 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 turn out to 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".

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