Musicians

David Lawrence
Choral Advisor

David Lawrence is one of the UK's most versatile choral conductors whose posts currently include Associate Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, Choir Leader of the City of Birmingham Young Voices, Musical Director of The Sage Gateshead's Regional Youth Choir, Quay Voices, Choral Advisor to sinfonia ViVA and he is a regular guest conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir.

David has particular experience in the world of contemporary music, having worked closely with Stockhausen conducting the German premiere of Engelprozessionen, with John Adams preparing the Dutch premiere of A Flowering Tree, as well as preparing and conducting premiere performances by Per Nørgård, Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, Mauricio Kagel, Graham Fitkin, James Wood, Bob Chilcott and others. He has recently worked with the London Philharmonic Choir, the Hallé Choir, the Philharmonia Chorus and the New London Chamber Choir.

David's work has taken him to India, Canada, South America, throughout Europe and will make his fourth visit to Australia in May 2009. He continues to work for the UK's leading choral organisations, is a popular leader of choral workshops and a well known trainer of choral conductors. David has adjudicated at international choral festivals as well as for the BBC Choir of the Year and Young Musician of the Year competitions. He recently featured in an hour's documentary on BBC Television, conducting Tallis' 40 part motet Spem in Alium sung by over 700 people – almost certainly the largest choir to ever perform this work.

As Principal Conductor of Young Voices David directs massed voices in an annual series of concerts with some choirs incorporating over 7,500 singers, and consequently holds the Guinness World Record for conducting the UK's largest choir. As their Choral Advisor, David continues to work with sinfonia ViVA as a project leader and conductor, and recently conducted large scale education projects for the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera and the English Symphony Orchestra. In November 2008 he makes his US debut and in 2009 he will be the director of the National Youth Choir of Wales.

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