Overview
Biography
Born and raised in Hong Kong, soprano Alison Lau is one of the most promising singers of her generation. Hailed by the Saxon Newspaper for her “pure tone, natural approach and perfectly crafted pronunciation that captured the audience”, Alison was the winner of the “Gerhart Hauptmann-Theater” Special Prize at the 22nd Concorso Internazionale per Cantanti Lirici Spazio Musica in Orvieto, Italy, the First Prize at Yokohama International Music Competition in Japan, and the Outstanding Performance Award at the Metropolitan International Music Festival Vocal Competition in New York. She was recently awarded the Certificate of Commendation by the Hong Kong Government’s Home Affairs Bureau.
Alison’s upcoming engagements include “Una Navidad barroca española” with Al Ayre Español in Laeiszhalle Hamburg and Kammermusiksaal of Berliner Philharmonie in December 2018, a solo song recital in Hong Kong City Hall, and Bach’s B minor mass with Die Konzertisten and Arcangelo in January 2019. She will also take part in Nova Ensemble’s inaugural Prism Chamber Music Festival as a member of Victoria Consort, a vocal quartet, and Song is Being, a multi-media baroque music project, which has been invited to reprise its performance in Musica Antiqua Takamatsu in 2019.
Highlights of the 2017/18 season include her solo début in Görlitz, Germany, performing Brahms’ A German Requiem, a concert with esteemed Spanish baroque orchestra Al Ayre Español in Hong Kong Arts Festival’s Young Friends programme and Die Konzertisten H.I.P. (Historically Informed Performance) Project and the Bach Pilgrimage Series. Alison also sang a series of French mélodie recitals with Music Lab in Hong Kong and in Taipei, and released her début album “My Voice & I” with Decca Records and Universal Music Hong Kong in July 2018.
During the 2016/17 season, her performances include Bach’s St. John Passion under the baton of Professor John Butt, and a series of Bach cantatas concerts with Die Konzertisten, CPE Bach's Magnificat with the Hong Kong Bach Choir, a Brahms and Schumann themed song recital with Music Lab in Hong Kong and London, Alma Mahler’s Fünf Lieder with Musica Viva, as well as role début as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Hong Kong. Highlights of the 2015/2016 season were Handel’s Messiah with Die Konzertisten, under the baton of Jonathan Cohen, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Britten’s The Company of Heaven and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. On the song recital stage, she has performed Grieg’s Sechs Lieder and Argento’s Six Elizabethan Songs in ‘Travel in Expression’ with Music Lab, a recital ‘400 years of Shakespearean Songs’ with Musica Viva, and in June 2015, she made her role début as Despina in Così fan tutte.
Alison received her master’s degree from New England Conservatory of Music, Boston in 2015, after completing her bachelor’s degree at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2013. She was a member of the Jockey Club Opera Hong Kong Young Artists Development Programme in 2015-17 and was also featured in “Young Music Makers” 2012, a series of documentaries by RTHK Radio 4.
