Laurence Kilsby

Laurence Kilsby studied as an ABRSM Vocal Scholar at the Royal College of Music in London, and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. An inaugural Lies Askonas Fellow, he was the winner of the 2018 Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for Young Singers and is the winner of the 2022 Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition and the 2022 Cesti Competition at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik.

In the 2022/23 season, Laurence joined the Académie of Opéra National de Paris and was recently awarded first prizes at the 2023 “Das Lied” Competition at the Heidelberger Frühling Festspiele, the 2022 Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition and the 2022 Cesti Competition at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik. This summer sees Kilsby debut at the Salzburger Festspiele, the Berliner Festspiele and the BBC Proms in Les Troyens, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.

Looking further into the 2023/24 season, he embarks on two European tours of W. A. Mozart’s Requiem and a selection of Bach Cantatas with Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion. He makes his Opéra  Comique and Opéra de Dijon debuts in L’Autre Voyage, based on the works of Franz Schubert and his Evangelist debut in the Matthäus Passion at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

His recent engagements include, Gioachino Rossini’s “La Scala di Seta” at the Théâtre de l’Athénée, J. S. Bach’s “Weihnachtsoratorium” with Leonardo García Alarcón and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, an Opera Gala with the Académie of Opéra National de Paris at the Palais Garnier, Claudio Monteverdi’s “L’incoronazione di Poppea” at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Royal Opera of Versailles, European tours of Bach’s “St John Passion” with both Ensemble Pygmalion and the OAE, Hugh Wheeler’s “A Little Night Music” with Opera North and Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” with the Nederlandse Reisopera.

A former chorister with the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, Laurence Kilsby was titled BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year in 2009, subsequently making his solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall (broadcast on Sky Arts). He appears as a soloist on a number of recordings, including the critically-acclaimed recording of Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Solemn Vespers (Schola Cantorum/Delphian), as well as the Grammy nominated album, G. F. Handel’s “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato” (Gabrieli Consort/Signum Records). He appears on a new release from Stone Records: “The Call” in collaboration with pianist, Malcolm Martineau.

An alumnus of the the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Renée Fleming’s Song Studio at Carnegie Hall, the Curtis Institute of Music and the Royal College of Music (in which during his studies, he received the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for Young Singers), he regularly studies under Italian-American tenor, Jack LiVigni.