Mhairi Lawson

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, The English Concert 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 recordings of Purcell’s ‘’King Arthur’’ and ‘’Fairy Queen’’, with the Gabrieli Consort and Players, with live performances of these works touring worldwide.

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), Philip Wilby’s “An English Passion” (with Belfast Cathedral Choir and Matthew Owens) and songs from Allan Ramsay’s Scottish Ballad Opera “The Gentle Shepherd” (Concerto Caledonia).  Current engagements include arias by Handel and Elisabetta di Gambarini with the Academy of Ancient Music and Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers in London.

As the resident soprano soloist and Masterclass Teacher at the Carmel Bach Festival in California Mhairi sang 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 Scottish Borders with her family, teaches Vocal Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and is a Teaching Professor of Historical Performance Practice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2020, she embarked on study as a PhD student at the Guildhall, researching 18^th-century Italian vocal style in Scotland with the publications of Domenico Corri (1746-1825).