Philip Lawson (composer)

Since September 2016 Philip Lawson has been Musical Director of The Romsey Singers, a chamber choir based in Romsey, near Southampton, and in 2021 was appointed Co-Conductor of The Farrant Singers, a chamber choir in Salisbury founded by Richard Lloyd in 1958.

Philip Lawson teaches choral singing, composing and arranging, working with choirs and a cappella groups in Europe and the USA, and on an individual basis with young composers and arrangers. He is on the staff of the Vocal Departments of Wells Cathedral specialist music school and the University of Bristol. In 2014 and 2016, he was one of two lecturers at the European Seminar For Young Composers held in Aosta, Italy, sponsored by the Italian national choral foundation Feniarco, and by Europa Cantat. He has been described by Choir & Organ magazine as a "choral polymath".

Lawson contributed over 50 arrangements to the repertoire of The King's Singers. He has 10 arrangements on the group's Grammy winning album "Simple Gifts", recorded in 2008 at the studio of Status Quo lead guitarist Francis Rossi. Nominations In 2000, Lawson was nominated for a Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album "Circle Of Life" (Kiss From A Rose; Kokomo; It Had To Be You, Etc.) (Album). Eight years later in 2008, he won a Grammy with the album "Simple Gifts" winning for Best Classical Crossover Album at the Grammy Award Ceremony held in Los Angeles in February 2009.

In June 1993, Lawson successfully auditioned for the part of second baritone with The King's Singers, replacing founder-member Simon Carrington. In 1996 he volunteered to fill the vacancy for first baritone, and continued to sing this part until his departure in February 2012.

Philip Lawson appears on all King's Singers recordings from 1993 to 2012:

From 1982 to 1993, Lawson was a Lay Clerk in Salisbury Cathedral Choir under Richard Seal and from 1989 was Director of Music of Chafyn Grove Preparatory School. During this time he also performed many times with The Sixteen, the English Concert and CM90, and worked as pianist and arranger for a local dance band.

Lawson switched from counter-tenor to baritone in 1978 at the age of 21. He moved to London upon graduating and worked for 3 years as a soloist and with choirs including The BBC Singers, The Taverner Choir, Opera Rara and the choirs of St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and Southwark Cathedral.

Philip Lawson (born 19 February 1957) is a Grammy award-winning British composer and arranger, mostly of a cappella and sacred music. For 18 years he was a baritone with the King's Singers and the group's principal arranger for the last fifteen years of that period. In 2009 the group's album "Simple Gifts", on which Lawson arranged 10 out of 15 tracks, won the Grammy award for "Best Classical Crossover Album". In February 2012, he left the King's Singers to concentrate on his writing career.