Shortlisted in the category Young Singer at the 2023 International Opera Awards, Laurence Kilsby won first prize in three international competitions; the Das Lied Competition at the Heidelberger Frühling Festspiele, the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition and the Cesti Competition at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik. He recently released his debut album with pianist Ella O’Neill, entitled AWAKENINGS, in coproduction with Avi-Musik, Deutsche Grammophon and SWR Kultur.
Laurence began his singing career as a renowned boy treble with the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum and was BBC Radio 2’s Young Chorister of the Year in 2009. He appears as a treble soloist on a number of acclaimed recordings, including Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Solemn Vespers (with the Schola Cantorum), as well as the Grammy nominated recording of Handel's L'Allegro, Penseroso ed il Moderato (with the Gabrieli Consort). He is an alumnus of the Royal College of Music (where he was an ABRSM scholar) and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Laurence begins the 2024/25 season with a return to the BBC Proms for a programme of French music, and also appears in two recitals at the Wigmore Hall. In opera, he makes his Opéra National du Rhin debut in Ariodante and returns to Opéra National de Paris (where he was a member of the opera studio) for his official main stage debut in Castor et Pollux. He also returns to Opéra Comique for a revival of Samson (after the music of Rameau) recently premiered at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. He also embarks on a European tour of the Johannes Passion with Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion, which includes his Italian debuts at the Teatro alla Scala and the Teatri di Reggio Emilia.
His recent engagements include; his debut Evangelist in the Matthäus Passion at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, European tours of Mozart’s Requiem and Bach Cantatas with Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion, L’Autre Voyage (after the works of Schubert) at the Opéra Comique and Opéra de Dijon, Les Troyens at the Salzburger Festspiele/Berliner Festspiele/BBC Proms, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal/Leonardo García Alarcón, L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (where he returns this forthcoming summer for Samson) and the Royal Opera of Versailles, European tours of the Johannes Passion with both Ensemble Pygmalion and the OAE, A Little Night Music with Opera North and L’Orfeo with the Nederlandse Reisopera.