Jill Lawson

The very talented pianist Jill Lawson was born in Mexico in 1974. She grew up in Belgium and has both the American and Portuguese nationality. She learned how to read music before she learned the alphabet. Today she speaks five languages fluently, but still prefers to communicate through music rather than through words. Her music provides her with a much richer vocabulary and it lies closer to her heart. Her life experiences in the last few years have helped to further enrich her range of interpretation abilities. She feels that her way of playing has become more natural, and because of this when performing she feels almost at one with the public.

During her career Jill won several awards and distinctions. Second prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition sent her career off to a flying start. She travelled all over the world performing at both large and small venues. Besides solo performances with international top orchestras she is also very fond of chamber music.

Together with her brother she forms the duo Lawson & Lawson and works with several singers on a regular basis. At the Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas in Castelo Branco she teaches piano and the course repertoire for singers.

Jill’s piano education began when she was eight years old. She has studied, among other places, in Antwerp, and in Amsterdam with Jan Wijn and she completed her Masters in music at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under Leon Fleisher and Ellen Mack. She has also attended several master classes with various master pianists including Dimitri Bashkirov and Maria João Pires.

Jill is planning an international comeback after a recent lull in activities during which she introduced more depth into her play. She has recorded the chamber music of Portuguese composer António Fragoso for Brilliant Classics and the complete sonatas for violin and piano of Hindemith will be released in December 2013 by Brilliant Classics.