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The American tenor, Lawrence Jones, has been a recipient of awards and has been a finalist in competitions such as the Oratorio Society of New York Solo Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and the Liederkranz Art Song Competition.
Lawrence Jones has established an active presence on the concert and operatic stages. He has received praise for his portrayals of Tom Rakewell in Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Princeton and Aldeburgh Festivals. The New York Times wrote, “Tenor Lawrence Jones brought a light, sweet voice and lyricism to Tom.” Opera News praised him for his “clean, ringing tenor,” and The Guardian described him as "a smooth-voiced Tom….his first-act aria, lamenting the loss of love, is especially affecting”. He has performed roles with companies such as New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Saratoga, Sarasota Opera, Haymarket Opera, and Amarillo Opera. On the concert stage, he has sung as a soloist with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, Musica Sacra, Boston Baroque (Director: Martin Pearlman), Boston Pops Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, and Rhode Island Philharmonic.
Lawrence Jones' concert engagements during the 2016-2017 season included the tenor solos in J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass (BWV 232) with the Oratorio Society of New York, the Consigliere in Stradella’s San Giovanni Battista at the Valletta International Baroque Festival in Malta, and the Evangelist in Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s St. John Passion with the Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys and New York Baroque Incorporated. He made his debut at Alice Tully Hall as tenor soloist in Schubert’s Mass in E-Flat with the Riverside Choral Society. In 2017-2018, he sang in performances of George Frideric Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, and at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue with the Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, for which the New York Times called him “an impressive tenor”. He sang in W.A. Mozart’s Requiem and Felix Mendelssohn’s Christus with the Back Bay Chorale, and in Monteverdi’s Vespers with Voices of Ascension. This past season included two more performances of the Vespers with the Oratorio Chorale of Portland, as well as his company debut with the Naples Philharmonic in I. Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. This season, he joined Chorus pro Musica and the Metropolitan Chorale at Boston’s Jordan Hall to sing in Janáček’s Amarus and F. Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht.
As a frequent performer of the works of J.S. Bach, Lawrence Jones' credits include the Evangelist in both the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) with the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus, and the St. John Passion (BWV 245) with the Cathedral Choirs and Orchestra of St. John the Divine. He has sung as a soloist in the St. John Passion (BWV 245) and St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with the New Mexico Philharmonic, Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, Bach Festival of Kalamazoo, Bach Society of St. Louis, and the Back Bay Chorale. Last season, he appeared in a program of Cantatas with American Classical Orchestra, the B Minor Mass (BWV 232) with the Bach Society of St. Louis, and in Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 180 with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem. This season he once again joins the Bach Choir of Bethlehem in Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65, and he returns to the Cathedral of St. John The Divine as a soloist in the B Minor Mass (BWV 232).
Active in the performance of contemporary works, Lawrence Jones made his company debut in Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are at New York City Opera, and sang in the American Stage Premiere of Elliott Carter's opera What Next? at Tanglewood. Concert engagements have included the American Premiere of Nico Muhly’s My Days with viol consort Fretwork, Arvo Pärt’s Passio with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and a tribute concert for Elliott Carter at Juilliard, in Mad Regales.
Lawrence Jones has sung as a member of many professional chamber and vocal ensembles, including the Clarion Choir, Saint Thomas Choir of Men & Boys, TENET (Director: Jolle Greenleaf), and the renaissance vocal ensemble, Cut Circle. With the latter, he has toured across Europe, including Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and can be heard on the recordings Du Fay: The Tenor Masses, and the upcoming release of Ockeghem: The Complete Songs. With the Clarion Choir, he participated in the Grammy-nominated recording of Maximilian Steinberg’s Passion Week, and has toured with the ensemble throughout the UK, Russia, and France. |
