Helen Lawson A.R.C.M. (Hons)

Helen Lawson was born in Northumberland and studied singing at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. She was awarded several scholarships, including a Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship, which enabled her to pursue further singing studies in Germany with Prof. Erik Werba at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, and Prof. Konrad Richter at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart.

Helen has appeared as soloist in opera houses both at home and abroad, including English National Opera; City of Birmingham Touring Opera; English Touring Opera; De Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen; Schlossfestspiele Zwingenberg/Heidelberg and Landestheater Thüringen. Among the roles she has performed are: Butterfly(Puccini: Madama Butterfly), Countess Almaviva (Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Mozart: Die Zauberfloete); Governess (Britten: Turn of the Screw); Tatiana(Tchaikovsky: Eugen Onegin), Echo (Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos) Solo Blumenmädchen (Wagner: Parsifal) and Senta (Wagner: The Flying Dutchman) .

She has also appeared as soloist in concerts and oratorio, including performances of Britten’s ‘ War Requiem’ and Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ at the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Sir David Willcocks, as well as in song recitals in the UK and abroad.

Having taught for 10 years in German universities (Bayreuth and Bamberg), she moved to Glasgow in 2002 to take up the post of Senior Lecturer in Vocal Studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Helen runs German Repertoire and Lied classes, breathing courses and individual vocal tuition and coaching at both post-graduate and under-graduate level. She trained as a breathing pedagogue in Germany (Osenberg/Parow) and attended Richard Miller’s Institute of Vocal Performance Pedagogy at Oberlin College, USA.

In 2011 she will be visiting several institutions in the States as part of a research project, funded by the Walter Hines Page Scholarship, looking at the American approach to vocal training.