Faculty

Derrick Lawrence, baritone, has sung roles on the stages of Philadelphia Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, Charlotte Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Piedmont Opera, Opera North, Zurich Opera House, Budapest, Wiesbaden, Düsseldorf, The Royal Danish Opera, Stuttgart, Luzern, Aachen, Freiburg, Statts Opera Berlin, Kaiserslautern, La Monnaie, Teatro Massimo, Opera Lyon and National Theater Brünn. Lawrence has over 80 roles in his repertoire, from Mozart’s Figaro to Wagner’s Wotan, Verdi’s Macbeth to Puccini’s Scarpia. He has performed at festivals such as Edinburgh Festival, Blossom Festival, Baden Baden Festival, Chaliapin Festival Russia, Mainau, Mozarteum Brasileiro and Luzern. Lawrence has sung in concert halls worldwide, including Concert Gebouw Amsterdam, Concert House Munich, Kurhaus Wiesbaden, Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall and Saalbau Essen, with great orchestras such as Saint Louis Symphony, Nürnberg, SWR Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Warsaw and American Symphony Orchestra, to name a few.

Lawrence received his musical education at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the renowned Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. He has been a prize winner in numerous international singing contests, rewarded with the Grace Bumbry Award, Mario Lanza Award, George London Award and Sullivan Foundation Award. He has also received the Richard Tucker Jacobson Study Grant and the 2006 Zelt Prize for Outstanding Classical Artists. In 1991, he won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.