Hailed as a rising star by the magazine International Piano, Scottish pianist Christina Lawrie made her debut in May 2009 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Dundee’s Caird Hall. Recent engagements have included live BBC Radio 3 broadcasts, a debut at Cheltenham Music Festival, and a recital at the Purcell Room for the South Bank Centre’s Fresh Young Musicians' Platform. Her debut CD will be released in July 2010.
Christina was a pupil of Jean Hutchison at the Music School of Douglas Academy in Glasgow. She went on to study at Chetham's School of Music with the Polish pianist and teacher Ryszard Bakst before reading Music at Trinity College, Cambridge. Subsequently the Royal College of Music awarded her a Leverhulme Postgraduate Studentship, enabling her to study with Yonty Solomon. She was also a pupil of Vanessa Latarche at the Royal Academy of Music, and has undertaken further study with Sergei Babayan and Joan Havill.
Christina’s debut at London’s world-renowned Wigmore Hall was praised by Musical Opinion magazine for its “astute intelligence and warmth of spirit”. In 2004 she gave her debut recital at London's South Bank Centre, in the Park Lane Group Young Artists Series. The Observer praised her "formidable intellect and boundless technique...Fantastic playing", and Musical Opinion described her as "a very gifted young player..." As a result of this recital, when one of the 2005 PLG Young Artists dropped out, six weeks before the concert, Christina was asked to step in for the 2005 series. Musical Pointers remarked of her performance "In a few weeks and by special request she had learnt the complete programme already scheduled for an indisposed PLG Young Artist. That included Tippett's rhapsodic and elusive 4th sonata, played from memory with complete assurance and remarkable aplomb; an astonishing feat of professionalism."
Her performance at the Bellapais International Festival in Cyprus was broadcast on television. Closer to home, Christina gave a recital in the inaugural season of the new Perth Concert Hall. Other recent engagements include her debut at
St. George's Bristol. She also gives numerous performances for music societies all over the UK, and frequently performs in her native Scotland. In May 08 she was honoured to give the inaugural recital on the Steinway bought by Music Nairn, and in January 08 she undertook a 6-concert tour of Argyll and
Bute.
Christina has won a host of accolades on a national and international level. She was a finalist in the Piano Section of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London, and a winner of the Blackheath Hall Young Artists auditions, as well being a prizewinner at the Marsala International Piano Competition. She also reached the finals of the Madrid International Piano Competition “ Compositores de España”. As a 16-year-old student of Ryszard Bakst, she was a prizewinner in the National Mozart Competition and, the following year, in the Bromsgrove International Young Musicians’ Platform.
A former Caird Scholar, Christina has also won an English-Speaking Union/Vlado Perlemuter scholarship, and awards from the Nicholas Boas Foundation, Lethendy Trust, Cross Trust, Hope Scott Trust, Inches Carr Trust, Leverhulme Foundation, Laura Ashley Foundation, Musicians Benevolent Fund, Pollok House Arts Society and the Tay Charitable Trust. She won numerous prizes at the RCM and the RAM, including the Academy's Christian Carpenter Postgraduate Piano Recital Prize, and the Friends of the Royal Academy of Music/Mortimer Career Development Award. She has received generous support from the Scottish Arts Council, and won a Dewar Award, Scotland's accolade for emerging artists.
Christina is very grateful to all her patrons and sponsors, and, in an effort to give back to the community, has recently given fundraising performances for various good causes including Cash For Kids, Dundee Disabled Children, The Rotary Club, and Haddo House Choral Society. She also helped to raise funds for the restoration of a grand piano owned by the state-run Malories Primary School, Brent, London.
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