Michael Lawson
*23 May 1952
Works by Michael Lawson
Biography
MICHAEL LAWSON is a Composer, Writer, Psychotherapist, Film Maker, and Broadcaster. His career in music began as a composer and concert pianist in the early seventies. His composition teachers were Nadia Boulanger, and the British composer, Edmund Rubbra. Michael was born in 1952. His first composition at the age of ten was a suite of Hungarian Dances. He gave his first BBC broadcast piano recital at thirteen. At fourteen he went to study composition with Edmund Rubbra at the Guildhall School of Music and was awarded The Worshipful Company of Musicians Composition Scholarship, The Wainright Composition Scholarship, and was the youngest recipient of the prestigious Guildhall Composition Prize. The following year, he was awarded an Arts Council Scholarship to continue studies in France with Nadia Boulanger. In 1978 Michael was ordained, but keeping a promise made to Nadia Boulanger, he returned to active composing in 2012, since when his output has been prolific.
About the music
Michael Lawson writes in a contemporary but harmonically accessible style reflected in his many works for orchestra, chamber ensemble and film. These have been widely performed. In February 2016, a retrospective of his complete chamber music cycle was performed at London's All Souls Langham Place. This included a String Quartet, Flute Concerto, Three Saxophone Pieces, Studies for Solo Piano, the Cello Sonata, and Concert Songs. His major symphonic works include Variations for Orchestra, Cantata Classica, and The Seasons. His popular Symphonic Movements has been heard at the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and at the Royal Wedding Celebration Concert at the Cadogan Hall in London, where his four-movement work, The Seasons, and his Royal Fanfare, "A Toast to Harry and Meghan", were premiered. Michael has recently completed Impressions for Solo Piano, Summer Dance for two pianos, and a Concerto for Soprano Saxophone (in two arrangements: with piano, and with piano and string orchestra.)