Mhairi Lawson has performed in opera houses and concert halls worldwide. In the UK, she has regularly collaborated with such companies as The Gabrieli Consort & Players, The Academy of Ancient Music, English National Opera, The Early Opera Company and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and with many leading conductors such as William Christie, Sir Charles Mackerras, Paul McCreesh, Jane Glover and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, in repertoire ranging from traditional folksong to opera.
This season, Mhairi sings Handel’s Messiah with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bach’s B minor Mass with the Bath Bach Choir, Haydn’s Creation with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, and performances of Purcell’s King Arthur on tour with the Gabrieli Consort.
Recent highlights include performances of Purcell Songes & Ayres and Handel’s Messiah with the Dunedin Consort, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with BBC NOW, Haydn’s Creation with the Arctic Philharmonic, regular residencies at the Carmel Bach Festival in the USA, and Mhairi continues her recital collaboration with Eugene Asti.
A keen recitalist, engagements have included songs from the British folksong tradition and Lieder by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss and Wolf with appearances in the Edinburgh Festival, Newcastle and York Universities, recordings for BBC Radio 3, and a recital with lutenist Elizabeth Kenny as part of the St Magnus International Festival.
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Handel Scipione (Berenice), Early Opera Company
London Handel Festival (March 2023)
Mhairi Lawson impressed with some stunningly expressive vocalism, particularly in the accompanied recitatives. Her purity of tone and consistency of line brought tremendous dignity and profundity to the siciliano at the end of Act 2 in which Berenice laments the never-ending trials she must forbear; elsewhere Lawson conveyed a gamut of emotions, from bewilderment to self-pity and, in a showstopping outburst of exuberant coloratura fireworks – with super support from vigorous strings and sumptuous oboes and bassoons – feisty resolution.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Record Review Radio 3: Building a Library, with Nicholas Kenyon
I think the exuberance of Mhairi Lawson for Paul McCreesh[‘s version of ‘Hark the echoing air'] - rapid fire virtuosity with just a touch of elaboration and a cheerfully rustic trumpet - is just what we need.
Nicholas Kenyon
Handel Messiah, Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (January 2023)
From hereon in, the narrative was foremost, whether issued through … the seraphic purity of Mhairi Lawson’s soprano (thoughtfully changing her garb from angelic white in Part 1 to a more demure black in Parts II & III for such golden reflective moments as her I know that my redeemer liveth)
Ken Walton, VoxCarnyx
Handel Messiah, Dunedin Consort, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh
(December 2021)
It was a directness mirrored in his quartet of soloists’ contributions. Mhairi Lawson’s I know That My Redeemer Liveth, for example, was a simple, sincere expression of faith, and all the more powerful for that, delivered with her exquisite silvery soprano.
David Kettle, The Scotsman*****
Bach St Matthew Passion, BBC National Orchestra of Wales
St David’s Hall Cardiff (April 2022)
…soprano Mhairi Lawson gave a haunting account of the Aria: ‘For love will my Redeemer die.’
Peter Collins, Nation Cymru
CD: Chisholm: Songs, Delphian DCD34259
(October 2021)
A rather different style of humour is on display in Glances, which John Purser aptly sums up as “highly suggestive and harmonically coquettish”. Mhairi Lawson and Iain Burnside deliver this with a definite twinkle in the eye. …Diarmait's Sleep, sung by Mhairi Lawson, is a touching lullaby to a sleeping lover. This is beautifully performed, as is Lament, which is all the more affecting on account of the restraint of the setting. Right at the end of the programme Ms Lawson gives us Home Sickness. This is very beautiful. …The penultimate song, ‘Innocence’ has Ms Lawson back in front of the microphone. This may well be my favourite among the set; its simple eloquence touches the heart and the fragile delicacy of Mhairi Lawson’s singing is just right. …Their voices sound extremely pleasing and the clarity of voice and of diction that each of them brings to their respective performances is very welcome.
John Quinn, MusicWeb International
Reflective prayers and laments are given a spring-water freshness by Lawson’
David Patrick Stearns, Gramophone
Handel Brockes-Passion, Arcangelo, Alpha Classics
ALPHA644 (March 2021)
Mhairi Lawson’s shining soprano excels in her reflective arias towards the end of the work (the assuaging ‘Was Wunder, dass der Sonnen Pracht’, softly coloured by bassoons, is one of several foretastes of Acis and Galatea).
Gramophone
Purcell: Songs & Ayres, Dunedin Consort at the Lammermuir Festival
(September 2020)
Dunedin programmes are always inventive affairs, and this one showed not just a creative choice of repertoire, but joy taken in the variety of what was on offer, crowned by Mhairi Lawson’s shining soprano which gave the songs star quality that they probably didn’t have when they were first performed.
Simon Thompson, Seen and Heard International
Purcell King Arthur 1691, Gabrieli Consort & Players
Signum Classics SIGCD589 (October 2019)
Nine singers shared the songs and choruses between them, a flawless ensemble of equals, though Anna Dennis and Mhairi Lawson stood out as a seductive pair of sirens.
Tim Ashley, The Guardian*****
Purcell King Arthur, Gabrieli Consort & Players, St John’s Smith Square
(October 2019)
Overall, this is a cultivated performance, well sung and played …First-rate voices are onboard, including Anna Dennis, Mhairi Lawson…
Richard Fairman, The Financial Times****
Mhairi Lawson’s Operatic Repertoire
| Albinoni | Il Nascimento dell’Aurora (Zeffiro) |
|---|---|
| Blow | Venus and Adonis |
| Cavalli | La Didone (Cassandra, Junone) |
| Charpentier | Actæon (Junone, Diane) |
| Handel | Acis and Galatea (Galatea) |
| Hasse | Antonio e Cleopatra (Cleopatra) |
| Landi | Il Sant’Alessio (Curtio) |
| Menotti | The Consul (Anna Gomez) |
| Monteverdi | L'Orfeo (la Musica, Speranza, Proserpina) |
| Pergolesi | La serva padrona (Serpina) |
| Poulenc | Dialogues of the Carmelites (Madame Lidoine) |
| Puccini | Suor Angelica (Genevieve) |
| Purcell | Indian Queen (God of Dreams) |
| Scarlatti | La gloria di Primavera (Primavera) |
| Sullivan | Iolanthe (Phyllis) |
| Vivaldi | La fida ninfa (Morasto) |
| Weill | Threepenny Opera (Polly) |
Mhairi Lawson’s Concert Repertoire
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