Francesca Lauri
Francesca Lauriissought after as a collaborative pianist specialising in the vocal repertoire of song and opera. Sherecently won thecollaborative piano prize at the 2024 Royal Over-Seas League competition, and previouslythe 2023AESS Dorothy Richardson English Song Prizeand the2022 Somerset Song Prize. Francesca was a finalist in the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier competition alongside prize winners Madeline Boreham and Charlotte Jane Kennedy.Also with Madeline, she won the LSF Schubert Prize and they performed the final recital in the 2024 Summer Festival.She recently made her BBC Radio 3 debut alongside duo partner Dafydd Jones after their performance at the Wigmore Hall in which he won the ROSL Gold Medal.
As a Young Artist, Francesca has participated in various programmes such as Leeds Lieder,SamlingandShipstonSong,andwas the Sam Hutchings scholar at theOxenfoordInternational Summer School. Francesca is passionate about French Melodie and was the ViolaTunnardScholar during her time as a Britten Pears Young Artist where she worked closely with Susan Manoff, Veronique Gens and Audrey Hyland on French Song repertoire. Alongside duo partnerEllen Pearson, Francesca is a 2024-25 Oxford Song Young Artist. As well as performing song repertoire, Francesca hasrepetiteuredfor various operacompanies such asHurnCourt Opera’s productions of ‘Don Pasquale’ and ‘La Boheme’,and SPO’s production of ‘Albert Herring’. She was also assistant conductor for Gothic Operafor two years running and performed in their production of ‘Der Vampyr’ at theGrimebornFestival last August.Francescarecently graduated with distinction from herpostgraduatestudies inCollaborative Pianoat the Royal College of Music where she was therecipient of the Ian EvansLombeScholarship,studyingwithSimon Lepper, Kathron Sturrock and Roger Vignoles.She was supported generously by the Countess of Munster trust and wonthepianist prizesin theLiedercompetition,theLiesAskonas,the JoanChissellSchumann competition and received 2ndprize in the English Songcompetition. In 2022, shegraduatedfromTrinity Laban,under the tutelage of Sergio de Simone,with First-Class Honours,receiving the TCL Silver Medal for piano studies and the David Gosling Prize for Piano Accompaniment.