Raymond Lawrence

Raymond is Head of Music and Chorus Master at Melbourne Opera and is one of Australia’s most highly regarded vocal coaches, accompanists, and opera conductors.

He studied at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music and joined Opera Queensland’s Young Artist Program. Most recently, Raymond has conducted a highly successful season of Puccini’s La Boheme and Suor Angelica; prior to this in May the beautiful Lucia di Lammermoor which followed Donizetti’s 2023 production of Maria Stuarda, all for Melbourne Opera. He has also conducted performances of Macbeth, Anna Bolena, Roberto Devereux, Lucrezia Borgia, Rossini’s Otello, The Barber of Seville, La Traviata, Pearl Fishers, The Abduction of Seraglio and HMS Pinafore. In 2019, Raymond was nominated for a Green Room Award for his conducting of Melbourne Opera’s production of Bellini’s Norma. As Head of Music and Chorus Master Raymond coached and prepared Wagner’s Des Ring des Nibelungen, Der fliegende Holländer, Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, Rienzi and Beethoven’s Fidelio. In addition he was Music Director for Opera Australia’s Victorian Schools Company and Stonnington Opera in the Park. As a vocal coach, he has nurtured many Australian singers who have gone on to become members of the Jette Parker Programme at The Royal Opera House, the Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Programme at Opera Australia, ensemble member at the Wiener Staatsoper, as well as becoming finalists and prize winners in many prestigious singing competitions.