BIOGRAPHY

She began her music studies at the Antwerp Music Academy at the age of 8, studying both piano and recorder. At 14 she entered the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp, and in 1995 she achieved the Higher Diploma for Piano and Chamber Music magna cum laude. Simultaneously and in 1992, she was accepted at the prestigious Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Waterloo (Belgium) where she graduated with high honors and recognition of her virtuosity.

Jill continued her studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Jan Wijn, and under Leon Fleisher and Ellen Mack at the Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University in Baltimore where she obtained her Master of Music (MM) in 2004. She attended several courses and master classes with various pianists including Maria Tipo (Escuole di Musica di Fiesole 1992-1994) Sequeira Costa, Vladimir Viardo, Dimitri Bashkirov, Helena Sá e Costa, Vitaly Margulis, Gyorgy Sebok and Maria João Pires. She took part in the award- winning documentary directed in 2001 during a workshop in Belgais with Maria João Pires.

Jill won several awards and distinctions in both national and international competitions, such as: second prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition (Macau, 1997); finalist at the Classical Fellowship Awards from the American Pianists Association (Indianapolis, 2003); fourth prize at the International Schubert Competition (Dortmund, 2001); finalist at the International Piano Competition Premi Principat d’Andorra (Andorra, 2001); First prize at the Concurso Cidade de Covilhã (Portugal, 2001); Second prize at the Concurso de Interpretação”(Estoril, Portugal, 2001); Laureate of the Tenuto contest (Brussels, 1995).

As a soloist, Jill has performed in the US, Europe and Asia, with the Nationaal Orkest van Belgie, Orkest der Lage Landen, Koninklijk Filharmonisch Orkest van Vlaanderen, BRTN Filharmonisch Orkest, Kamerorkest van Antwerpen, Symfonie Orkest van de Vlaamse, Radio Kamerorkest the Netherlands, Brabants Orkest Klassische Philharmonie Telekom Bonn, The Middle Tennessee Symphony, Quad City Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Alma Mater, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Orquestra do Norte, Orquestra Concerto Moderno, Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil de Lisboa, among others. Simultaneously, she remains an active chamber musician, having performed with artists such as Augustin Dumay, Carlos Damas, Pavel Gomziakov, , David Cohen, Artur Pizarro, Eleonora Karpukhova and soprano Elisabete Matos. She forms a Duo with her brother, Eliot Lawson.

Jill Lawson has recorded Schumann’s Symphonic Études opus 13 for the Vianna da Motta International Foundation, participated in the album Portuguese Pianists for RDP-Antena 2/BMG Portugal, the complete chamber music for violin and piano of Portuguese composers António Fragoso and Frederico de Freitas (Brilliant Classics 2013 and 2015) the Hindemith Violin and Piano Sonatas (Brilliant Classics 2014) and Chamber Music by Portuguese composer Joly Braga Santos (Toccata Classics 2020).