Mhairi Lawson

Biography

Mhairi Lawson has worked worldwide with companies such as English National Opera, New York City Opera and The Early Opera Company in works by composers from Monteverdi to Puccini.  She has sung as soloist with the Halle Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Northern Sinfonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and period instrument ensembles Les Arts Florissants, the Academy of Ancient Music and the Dunedin Consort. 

Her discography ranges from Haydn’s ‘Creation’ (Oxford Philharmonic) and Canzonettas (with Olga Tverskaya), Schubert Lieder (with Eugene Asti) and works by Vivaldi (La Serenissima) to traditional classical Scottish music (Concerto Caledonia). Mhairi sings on the award-winning 2019 recordings of Purcell’s ‘’King Arthur’’ and ‘’Fairy Queen’’, with the Gabrieli Consort and Players, with live performances of these works touring to Australia and throughout Europe. 

More recent recording work includes Handel’s ‘’Brockes Passion’’ (Arcangelo, Alpha) also performed at London’s Wigmore Hall, the songs of Erik Chisholm (with Iain Burnside, Delphian) and Philip Wilby’s “An English Passion” (with Belfast Cathedral Choir and Matthew Owens) 

Since 2016, Mhairi has been the resident soprano soloist and Masterclass Teacher at the Carmel Bach Festival in California where she has sung a variety of roles and repertoires from Elettra (Mozart’s ‘’Idomeneo’’) and the vocalise in Villa Lobos’ ‘’Bachianas  Brasilieras’’ to Beethoven’s Symphony No 9. 

Mhairi lives in the Borders with her family and is a Professor of Voice and Historical Performance Practice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2020, she embarked on study as a PhD student at that same institution, researching vocal pedagogy in the publications of Domenico Corri (1746-1825).