Philip Lawson

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Philip Lawson (born February 19, 1957) is a baritone with The King's Singers and has been the group's main arranger for the past decade. He is also a composer, mainly of church music and runs a business (Gard Books) which buys and sells new and secondhand sheet music. Philip was born in Crawley, West Sussex and attended Hazelwick Comprehensive School. He was 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 Philip switched from counter-tenor to baritone in 1978 at age 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 Rare and the choirs of St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Southwark Cathedral. From 1982 to 1993 Philip was a Lay Clerk in Salisbury Cathedral Choir under Richard Seal and from 1989 was Director of Music of Chafyn Grove Preparatory School. In June 1993 he successfully auditioned for The King's Singers, replacing founder-member Simon Carrington. Philip is still touring and recording with the group and for ten years has been the group

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