Philip Lawson (born February 19, 1957) is a composer and arranger, mostly of a cappella and sacred music. He is currently a baritone with The King's Singers and has been the group's principal arranger for the past fifteen years. 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 July 2011, he announced that he will be leaving the King's Singers in January 2012 to concentrate on his writing career.
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Philip Lawson was born in Crawley, West Sussex and attended Hazelwick Comprehensive School. He is not from a musical family but a chance meeting introduced him to the boys' choir of Worth Church which sparked his interest in music, particularly church music. He went on to study Music at York University under Wilfrid Mellers and to sing counter-tenor in York Minster choir, under Francis Jackson.
Lawson switched from counter-tenor to baritone in 1978 at the age of 21, after volunteering to fill in a few bars of baritone in the University music department's performance of Monteverdi's "Orfeo" as there was no-one else available to sing them. He moved to London upon graduating and worked for a few years as a soloist and with many choirs including The BBC Singers, The Taverner Choir, Opera Rara and the choirs of St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Southwark Cathedral.
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.
In June 1993 he 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 continues to sing this part. In 2012 Lawson has announced that he intends to step down from his position with The King's Singers in order to concentrate on his composing and arranging.
Lawson is at present still touring and recording with The King's Singers and for fifteen years has been the group's main arranger. 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. The album won the Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album at the Grammy Award Ceremony held in Los Angeles in February 2009.
He also wrote the lyrics to "Born on a New Day", the highly successful Christmas version of the King's Singers best-selling hit arrangement of "You are the New Day".
Lawson is also a composer of choral music in his own right with more than a hundred published works, and has a busy schedule of commissions from choirs and a cappella groups. Most of his works are in print with Hal Leonard Corporation in the USA, but he also has works published by Boosey and Hawkes, Walton Music, The Lorenz Corporation, Morningstar Music, Pavane Publications, Alliance Music, Banks Music, Encore Publications and Schoolplay Productions.
Philip Lawson appears on all King's Singers recordings to date since 1993:
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