by Stephanie Manning
It was only “A Matter of Time” before Laufey had the Blossom Music Center audience hanging on to her every word. And that was practically no time at all.
The singer-songwriter’s August 7 performance with The Cleveland Orchestra packed the venue with her adoring fans — many of them wearing her trademark items like dresses and hair bows — whose cheers rose up the moment the lights dimmed.
Ahead of the August 22 release of her third album, A Matter of Time, the Icelandic-Chinese artist brought her “A Night at the Symphony” tour to Cuyahoga Falls on a temperate Thursday evening. The sparkling, emotionally vulnerable performance thrived on her star power, bolstered by The Cleveland Orchestra and conductor Ross Jamie Collins.
The orchestral palette is familiar territory for Laufey (pronounced LAY-vay), a classically trained musician who grew up between Reykjavik and Washington, D.C. Her wistful, crooning voice also draws influence from pop and jazz, the latter most identifiable in the daydreaming “Like the Movies” and the layered harmonies of the opening “Dreamer.”