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Lawrence Dunn

Lawrence Dunn

Lawrence is commissioning editor at Bachtrack. He is a composer, improviser, pianist and writer. He has taught at Cambridge, Huddersfield and Sheffield universities. He has written music for, among others the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Slagwerk Den Haag, Philip Thomas, Juliet Fraser, Ilya Gringolts, Plus-Minus, Exaudi, Apartment House and Explore Ensemble.

Author:Lawrence Dunn

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Stylus fantasticus: Vojtěch Jakl on Early music in Czechia

By Lawrence Dunn, 03 November 2025

Taking a broad look at the current state of Early music across Europe, we talk to young artists in several countries – beginning with talented young Czech violinist, Vojtěch Jakl.

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Stylus fantasticus: Vojtěch Jakl on Early music in Czechia

By Lawrence Dunn

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Routes beyond: Junyan Chen on curating Leeds International Chamber Series 2025–26

By Lawrence Dunn, 14 October 2025

Award-winning pianist Junyan Chen talks about curating this year’s Leeds International Chamber Series, making new arrangements of repertoire, and the importance of chamber music for pianists.

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Routes beyond: Junyan Chen on curating Leeds Chamber Series

By Lawrence Dunn

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Fresh sounds in Manchester: RNCM’s Inspirational Artists series

By Lawrence Dunn, 09 October 2025

Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music has initiated a new international guest artist series, designed to foreground musicians who have fresh perspectives on performance and curation.

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Fresh sounds: RNCM’s Inspirational Artists series

By Lawrence Dunn

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Dramas of imagination: Ensemble Micrologus and Per-Sonat at Laus Polyphoniae

By Lawrence Dunn, 23 August 2025

Adam de la Halle’s Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, one of the earliest extant music dramas, is given riotous performance by Ensemble Micrologus.

****1

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Dramas of imagination: Ensemble Micrologus and Per-Sonat in Antwerp

By Lawrence Dunn

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Smearing and sliding: Huelgas Ensemble a revelation at Laus Polyphoniae

By Lawrence Dunn, 22 August 2025

In Antwerp, the Huelgas Ensemble pull off an idiosyncratic and persuasive dive into Léonin, Pérotin and the world of Notre Dame polyphony.

*****

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Smearing and sliding: Huelgas Ensemble at Laus Polyphoniae

By Lawrence Dunn

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Behind the scenes of Japan’s oldest orchestra: the Tokyo Philharmonic

By Lawrence Dunn, 22 August 2025

Ahead of their European tour this autumn with Myung-whun Chung, we discover the history of one of Japan’s most important classical music institutions.

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Behind the scenes of Japan’s oldest orchestra: the Tokyo Philharmonic

By Lawrence Dunn

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Making waves at the Hallé: Euan Shields

By Lawrence Dunn, 17 June 2025

Ahead of the 2026 Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition, we talk to past winner Euan Shields about what entrants can expect, and how to navigate the competition’s twists and turns.

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Making waves at the Hallé: Euan Shields

By Lawrence Dunn

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Looking for Thomas Adès in the Aquifer

By Lawrence Dunn, 26 March 2025

In residence in Manchester with the Hallé, Thomas Adès talks about recent pieces Aquifer and Wreath, and how bigness and smallness are never exactly quantifiable.

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Looking for Thomas Adès in the Aquifer

By Lawrence Dunn

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Sun, fish, pigs and children: Borealis 2025

By Lawrence Dunn, 25 March 2025

This year’s Borealis festival in Bergen presented a mix of at times bizarre new ensemble, theatre and operatic works from Jason Yarde, Okkyung Lee and Bastard Assignments.

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Sun, fish, pigs and children: Borealis 2025

By Lawrence Dunn

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Darkness and pathos: Nicholas McCarthy on Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand

By Lawrence Dunn, 07 March 2025

Pianist Nicholas McCarthy, who was born without a right hand, talks about his intimate relationship with one of Ravel’s most enigmatic works.

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Darkness and pathos: Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand

By Lawrence Dunn

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Dances and mountains: Cristian Sandrin takes a new approach to the Goldberg Variations

By Lawrence Dunn, 19 December 2024

Ahead of a performance at London’s Sinfonia Smith Square, pianist Cristian Sandrin talks about commissioning three new variations from composers Farhad Poupel, Louise Drewett and Philip Dutton, and his aim to create a new view of Bach’s music.

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Dances and mountains: Cristian Sandrin’s new Goldberg Variations

By Lawrence Dunn

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Sensuality and modern music: Barbara Hannigan

By Lawrence Dunn, 06 December 2024

Barbara Hannigan talks about her relationship with Boulez, on singing Pli selon pli, and returning to the London Symphony Orchestra to conduct two programmes this season.

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Sensuality and modern music: Barbara Hannigan

By Lawrence Dunn

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Alternative future sonic worlds: Ultima Oslo 2024

By Lawrence Dunn, 19 September 2024

One of the standout contemporary music festivals anywhere in the world, Ultima Oslo is a model for musical meetings across boundaries, and radical open-mindedness.

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Alternative future sonic worlds: Ultima Oslo

By Lawrence Dunn

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Something completely different: the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ

By Lawrence Dunn, 29 May 2024

With an eclectic programming ethos, and some of the finest acoustics in the Netherlands, the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ is about as adaptable as it’s possible for a modern concert hall to be.

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Something completely different: the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ

By Lawrence Dunn

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Oceanic swells, orchestral tangles: Baltic & Estonian Music Days

By Lawrence Dunn, 28 April 2024

The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra presents contemporary works, including three world premieres, by composers from across the Baltics.

***11

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Oceanic swells, orchestral tangles: Baltic & Estonian Music Days

By Lawrence Dunn

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Tombs, elegies and ruins: Baltic & Estonian Music Days

By Lawrence Dunn, 27 April 2024

Anna-Liisa Eller and Taavi Kerikmäe present new works for the Estonian kannel and keyboard instruments, alongside arrangements of Baroque music.

***11

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Tombs, elegies and ruins: Baltic & Estonian Music Days

By Lawrence Dunn

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Solemn rites and fractured chants open Baltic & Estonian Music Days in Tartu

By Lawrence Dunn, 26 April 2024

Tartu, European City of Culture in 2024, hosts the long-established contemporary music festival, bringing together composers and and musicians from across the Baltics.

****1

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Solemn rites and fractured chants open Estonian Music Days in Tartu

By Lawrence Dunn

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Deadly playful: eight new works from women composers in 2024

By Lawrence Dunn, 08 March 2024

Kaleidoscopic, surreal, uncanny, crystalline, playful and deadly – we survey eight women composers with new works to be premiered in 2024.

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Deadly playful: eight new works from women composers in 2024

By Lawrence Dunn

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Composition as learning: Cassandra Miller

By Lawrence Dunn, 07 March 2024

The Canadian composer talks about her working method, her interest in vocality, her guitar concerto for Sean Shibe and the Dunedin Consort, and whether she’s still trying to make audiences cry.

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Composition as learning: Cassandra Miller

By Lawrence Dunn

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Contests of power and imagination: DNO’s The Shell Trial

By Lawrence Dunn, 09 February 2024

Composer Ellen Reid and co-directors Gable and Romy Roelofsen speak about their new opera, which dramatises a 2021 court case brought by Dutch citizens against the oil company Shell.

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Contests of power and imagination: DNO’s The Shell Trial

By Lawrence Dunn

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Glimpses of the future of classical music at Concertgebouw Bruges

By Lawrence Dunn, 29 November 2023

Rising in a distinctive terracotta above the medieval city of Bruges, the Concertgebouw presents a hugely multifaceted programme – and is driving new initiatives for decarbonisation and sustainability.

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Glimpses of future classical music at Concertgebouw Bruges

By Lawrence Dunn

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Singing at the edge: inside the BBC Singers

By Lawrence Dunn, 04 September 2023

Mezzo-soprano Jessica Gillingwater and tenor Peter Davoren reveal how demanding being a member of the BBC Singers is – and how they approach singing such a wide variety of music.

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Singing at the edge: inside the BBC Singers

By Lawrence Dunn

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Sharp drop in A Level Music entrants reflects wider declines in music education

By Lawrence Dunn, 18 August 2023

The numbers of entrants to A Level Music has halved since 2010, reflecting a wider landscape for music and culture across the UK that is increasingly bleak.

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Sharp drop in A Level Music entrants reflects wider declines

By Lawrence Dunn

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Three new works of wildly varying quality at Manchester International Festival

By Lawrence Dunn, 07 July 2023

Conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni, the BBC Philharmonic and soloists Ralph van Raat and Jess Dandy present three new works, each relating to natural environments.

***11

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Wildly varying quality at Manchester International Festival

By Lawrence Dunn

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Aloofness, sincerety and montage: Esposito Quartet plays Laurence Crane and Caroline Shaw

By Lawrence Dunn, 17 June 2023

The premiere of Laurence Crane’s new string quartet is presented in Dundalk alongside Caroline Shaw and the Esposito Quartet.

****1

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Aloofness, sincerety, montage: Esposito Quartet plays Crane and Shaw

By Lawrence Dunn

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Loneliness and togetherness: Chamber Choir Ireland in Dundalk

By Lawrence Dunn, 16 June 2023

Chamber Choir Ireland opens Louth Contemporary Music Society’s summer festival, with two major new works from Cassandra Miller and Linda Catlin Smith.

*****

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Loneliness and togetherness: Chamber Choir Ireland in Dundalk

By Lawrence Dunn

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A survivor from Transylvania: the life of György Ligeti

By Lawrence Dunn, 28 May 2023

Ligeti’s early life was deeply eventful and traumatic. Biographer Richard Steinitz describes writing Ligeti’s biography – and the alienated and abstracted imprint it left on his music.

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A survivor from Transylvania: the life of György Ligeti

By Lawrence Dunn

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With pipes, drums and fiddles: a Ligeti playlist

By Lawrence Dunn, 26 May 2023

Born 100 years ago, the music of Hungarian composer György Ligeti is varied and multiplicitous, displaying a voracious curiosity and a multifaceted imagination.

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With pipes, drums and fiddles: a Ligeti playlist

By Lawrence Dunn

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Against the status quo: the music of Johanna Beyer

By Lawrence Dunn, 14 April 2023

A pioneering composer of music for electronic instruments in the 1930s, Johanna Beyer also wrote singular chamber and large ensemble music. A portrait concert will be presented at LAC Lugano in May.

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Against the status quo: the music of Johanna Beyer

By Lawrence Dunn

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Pressure and intoxication: the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition

By Lawrence Dunn, 31 March 2023

Twenty talented young conductors descend on London to participate in the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition 2023, one of the most prestigious in the world.

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Pressure and intoxication: the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition

By Lawrence Dunn

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BBC announces closure of BBC Singers, redundancies at orchestras

By Lawrence Dunn, 09 March 2023

The BBC’s announcement of its decision to shutter the BBC Singers, and to aim for 20% redundancies in its English orchestras, has attracted criticism.

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BBC announces closure of BBC Singers, redundancies at orchestras

By Lawrence Dunn

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Eight women composers to watch in 2023

By Lawrence Dunn, 08 March 2023

A playlist presenting a multiplicity of musics from eight women composers from around the world, with premieres in 2023.

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Eight women composers to watch in 2023

By Lawrence Dunn

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Breaking the cage from the inside: Dutch National Opera’s Animal Farm

By Lawrence Dunn, 17 February 2023

A new opera based on Orwell’s Animal Farm will shortly open at Dutch National Opera. Director Damiano Michieletto, librettist Ian Burton and composer Alexander Raskatov speak about this ambitious and fervent new project.

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Breaking the cage from the inside: Dutch National Opera’s Animal Farm

By Lawrence Dunn

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Everyday life as a ballerina: an interview with Deborah Weiss

By Lawrence Dunn, 10 February 2023

Bachtrack’s new Dance Editor has had a remarkable career as a dancer, working with everyone from Rudolf Nureyev, to Margot Fonteyn, to Alicia Markova.

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Everyday life as a ballerina: an interview with Deborah Weiss

By Lawrence Dunn

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Tár shines a light on orchestral life in Germany

By Lawrence Dunn, 30 January 2023

Cate Blanchett’s imperious performance has attracted praise and controversy. Yet in Germany, a woman chief conductor of Lydia Tár’s status seems distant.

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Tár shines a light on orchestral life in Germany

By Lawrence Dunn

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Arvo Pärt: music for humanity

By Lawrence Dunn, 06 January 2023

In our statistics for 2022, Arvo Pärt is the most performed living composer. What might account for the enduring appeal of this highly personal and spiritual music?

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Arvo Pärt: music for humanity

By Lawrence Dunn

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The Dawn Has Risen: a playlist of Ukrainian music

By Lawrence Dunn, 24 November 2022

The tragedy of the invasion of Ukraine has rejuvenated interest in Ukrainian music for many across Europe. This playlist glances the surface of a musical culture that runs incredibly deep.

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The Dawn Has Risen: a playlist of Ukrainian music

By Lawrence Dunn

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Coming together: a playlist for the US election

By Lawrence Dunn, 08 November 2022

The world stands agog as the US undergoes another election. These composers sought to reveal the brokenness of US politics – and the ability of the American people to come together in spite of it.

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Coming together: a playlist for the US election

By Lawrence Dunn

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Contemporary music sliced by Arts Council England’s knife

By Lawrence Dunn, 04 November 2022

Arts Council England have issued multiple funding reductions to contemporary music organisations across England, with some seeing total reductions in funding.

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Contemporary music sliced by Arts Council England’s knife

By Lawrence Dunn

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Vimbayi Kaziboni: Music to change your life

By Lawrence Dunn, 02 November 2022

Bachtrack catches up with Zimbabwean-American conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni as he visits Manchester to conduct the BBC Philharmonic – in a project exploring interactions between the orchestra and artificial intelligence.

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Vimbayi Kaziboni: Music to change your life

By Lawrence Dunn

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Machine for Contacting the Dead: a playlist for Halloween

By Lawrence Dunn, 24 October 2022

A musical exploration of the roots of Halloween (and associated festivals La Toussaint and El Día de los Muertos) – when the dead come alive and walk among us.

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Machine for Contacting the Dead: a playlist for Halloween

By Lawrence Dunn