Ashley Lawrence (musician)

Ashley Macdonald Lawrence, (5 June 1934, Hamilton, New Zealand – 7 May 1990, Tokyo) was a New Zealand conductor mainly active in the UK and Germany, and particularly associated with ballet.

After having graduated from the University of Auckland, Lawrence went to London in 1956 and spent three years at the Royal College of Music studying piano and conducting. He also studied with Rafael Kubelik. In 1962 he joined the Royal Ballet and soon made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

In September 1966 he became Music Director of the ballet company of the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin, and in 1971 was appointed Music Director of the Stuttgart Ballet. In 1971 he also became Principal Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra. In 1972 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, and in 1973 Music Director of the same company, leaving in 1987. He also regularly conducted the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, including on a tour to his home country in late 1989. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1987 to 1989, and had been appointed to a similar position at the New York City Ballet shortly before his death.

At the Deutsche Oper, Lawrence not only played piano for rehearsals, but conducted all the ballet performances, and made time to learn Benesh Movement Notation. Kenneth MacMillan credited him with suggesting music by Martinů to be used in the ballet Anastasia.

He had a wide repertoire in the concert hall, with many studio broadcasts on BBC radio with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He conducted at the Proms with programmes of Tchaikovsky; Delius, Grainger and Sullivan (1974) and Sullivan (1975). Lawrence conducted the premieres of works by Arthur Butterworth, Anthony Hedges, Anthony Payne, Gerard Schurmann, Patric Standford and Robert Farnon.

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