Tenor Jacob Lawrence’s early musical education began at the age of 6, when he joined his father’s choir at the Scots’ Church in Melbourne, Australia. He went on to study singing at the Melbourne Conservatorium before moving to Basel to undertake further study with Gerd Türk at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Jacob performs regularly as a soloist in both opera and oratorio, as well as in an ensemble setting. He has performed as evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion and arias in the St. Matthew Passion, as well as many of Bach’s cantatas, tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, and masses by Mozart and Haydn, as well as many other composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has performed principal roles with Pinchgut Opera, Victorian Opera, Gare du Nord Basel, and Schwetzingen Schlosstheater. Roles include; Orfeo  (l’Orfeo); Lucano/Soldato II/Liberto (l’Incoronazione di Poppea); Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas); Ubaldo (Armida); Hyllus  (Hercules); Alcindo (La Ninfa e il Pastore).

Now based in Basel, Jacob performs regularly with many of Europe’s leading instrumental vocal and instrumental ensembles, focussing particularly on music of the late medieval to early baroque periods. He performs regularly in festivals across Europe with groups such as Vox Luminis, Le Miroir de Musique, Göttinger Barockorchester, Ensemble Leones, La Cetra Vokalensemble, Abendmusiken Basel, Thelème, Freunde Alte Musik Basel, and Troxalida.

Upcoming engagements include Josquin’s Missa l’Homme Armé Sexti Toni with Vox Luminis at the Festival Oude Muziek, Utrecht, as well as a performance of never before heard works from the newly discovered Leuven Chansonnier with ensemble Leones at the Festival van Vlaanderen.

Jacob sang the role of Ubaldo in our production of Haydn's Armida in June 2016 and the roles of Lucano, Soldato II and Console in our production of Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea in December 2017. He sang the roles of Giove and Eumete in our 2019 production of The Return of Ulysses.