Annabelle Lawson
Professor of Piano
MA (Cantab), MusB
Email: [email protected]
Pianist Annabelle Lawson is a versatile performer and distinguished educator known for her intellectual rigour and musical subtlety. She has performed extensively across Europe and Australia, as well as at UK venues such as Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall and Kings Place. As a founder member of the 25-year-old Lawson Trio, Annabelle has produced several acclaimed recordings of contemporary music, as well as commissioning many new works for piano and strings. Her recordings have garnered 5-star reviews in BBC Music Magazine and she has broadcast ‘live’ for BBC Radio 3 on multiple occasions. The Lawson Trio were finalists in the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Park Lane Group award winners and the first piano trio to be offered a prestigious Britten-Pears Residency at Snape Maltings.
Annabelle’s career spans a wide spectrum, from performing as concerto soloist, through collaborating with dancers and creating multimedia resources for children, to performing as a cabaret artist. In 2024 she released her debut solo disc The Complete Solo Piano Works of Gordon Crosse for Prima Facie and she works as a collaborative pianist for the University of Sheffield. Annabelle has led many outreach and education initiatives for organisations such as Wigmore Learning, Music in the Round and Spitalfields Festival, as well as being Artistic Director of Chamber Music 2000 for many years. In this role, she organised and led dozens of inter-school workshops and high-profile showcase concerts, marking both the 2012 Olympics and the Centenary of World War One. While living in north-east London, Annabelle also owned the Essex franchise of the hugely successful Bach to Baby enterprise; running, hosting and performing in monthly concerts across the region.
A dedicated educator, Annabelle previously taught at Junior Royal Academy of Music, London for 10 years. She now teaches piano to both undergraduates and postgraduates at Sheffield University, as well as teaching for Sheffield Music Academy and examining for the ABRSM. Annabelle’s musical journey began at Chetham’s School of Music, aged 11. She then studied music at King’s College, University of Cambridge, where she received her BA and a further MusB, awarded with distinction. Her postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music culminated in a two-year Junior Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship. Annabelle holds a graduate diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy, as part of which she wrote a paper on performance anxiety from a Kleinian perspective. She is currently embarked on an MA in Psychoanalytic Observational Studies at the Northern School of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, further enriching her understanding of communication and of the teacher-pupil relationship.
