LAURENCE OSBORN

Laurence Osborn is a British composer currently based in London. His music has been commissioned and programmed by the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Britten Sinfonia, The Riot Ensemble, Manchester Collective, 12 Ensemble, GBSR Duo, Ensemble Klang, and Ensemble 360, among others, along with performers Sarah Dacey, Mahan Esfahani, Bartosz Glowacki, Zubin Kanga, Lore Lixenberg, and Michael Petrov. He has composed works for venues throughout the UK such as The Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Royal Opera House, Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, LSO St Luke's, St Martin- In-The-Fields, Milton Court, Wilton's Music Hall, Britten Studio (Aldeburgh), The National Portrait Gallery, The Holywell Music Room (Oxford), The Crucible Theatre (Sheffield), Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge), and at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (where he was an International Showcase Artist), St Magnus International Festival, Music in the Round Festival, and Ulverston International Music Festival. Laurence won the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2017. He was also runner up in the New Cobbett Prize for Composition (2014) and the International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition (2013) and shortlisted for the ICSM World Music Days (2018). Laurence has won student prizes for composition while studying at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, including the Adrian Cruft Prize for Composition and the Royal College of Music Concerto Competition. His cycle Essential Relaxing Classical Hits was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in 2022. He has held positions in association with LSO Soundhub (2013-15), Nonclassical (2015-17), and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (2017-18).

Laurence read Music at Hertford College, Oxford, studying Composition with Martyn Harry and Martin Suckling, and graduating with a 1st in 2011. He then studied for an MMus in Composition with Kenneth Hesketh at the Royal College of Music, London, supported by an RVW Trust Scholarship and graduating with Distinction in 2013. Laurence then studied for an MA in Opera Making and Writing with Julian Philips at The Guildhall School of Music, generously supported by The Leverhulme Arts Scholarship. He graduated with Distinction in 2015, and held the position of Artist Fellow in Composition for the following year. While composing freelance from 2016 to 2018, Laurence studied composition privately with Julian Anderson. He then began studying for a PhD in Composition at Kings College London, supervised by Sir George Benjamin, and supported by a full scholarship from the AHRC London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) Research Studentship.

Current projects include a series of portrait concerts at the Wigmore Hall featuring Britten Sinfonia, Mahan Esfahani, The Castalian Quartet, and Marian Consort, a co-commissioned work for the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Cheltenham Music Festival and Kings Place, and commissions for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the SmorgasChord Festival.