Patrick Lawrence was born into a musical family, the son of a pianist and an organist, and later stepson of a harpsichordist. Patrick began piano lessons at a young age and went on to study with Stephen McIntyre, then Ronald Farren-Price at the University of
Melbourne.
Later Patrick worked as a collaborative pianist in Vienna before moving to the
United States to complete a Master in Vocal Accompanying at the University of Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music, studying with Australian collaborative pianist Ken Griffiths.
On return to Australia he had two national tours as repetiteur and orchestral pianist with
OzOpera under the direction of Richard Gill and a national tour of Prunella Scales’ An
Evening with Queen Victoria (performing solo repertoire and accompanying English tenor
Ian Partridge).
Patrick has also co-devised theatrical works for children and adults including a season at the Famous Spiegeltent writing, playing and acting with Antoinette Halloran in 50 Shades of Opera. Patrick has performed premieres of songs by Australian composers such as Stuart Greenbaum as well as Australian Premieres of experimental works such as Jerome Kitzke’s Sunflower Sutra.
Patrick has always had a love of the art song repertoire from his exploration of Wagner’s
Wesendonck Lieder in his early teens. Patrick divides ongoing work as a pianist and organist with a career in human rights as the Director of Aid at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
