Birmingham Conservatoire : Justin Lavender

• Vocal Tutor
• Birmingham Conservatoire
• Faculty of Performance, Media & English
• Phone: c/o +44 (0)121 331 6903

Justin Lavender has sung leading tenor roles with most of the world’s major opera houses, including the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, the Vienna and Berlin State Operas and La Scala, Milan. Recently he has performed Don José with the Welsh National Opera and in the Royal Opera’s production of Carmen, which travelled to Taiwan.

He has a parallel concert career with symphony orchestras throughout the world, and has many commercial recordings to his credit. Prominent among these is Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, issued for the Elgar 150th anniversary. This recording was the Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. The late Alan Blyth wrote, “The best modern Gerontius… Justin Lavender surpasses all recent interpreters.” Justin also sings the leading role of Pierre Bezuhov in the only complete recording of Prokofiev’s War and Peace. A student of Mandarin Chinese, he has performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in a new edition using the original Tang Dynasty texts.

In addition to being a Vocal Tutor at Birmingham Conservatoire, he is a Professor of Vocal Studies at the Royal College of Music, and Vocal Consultant to the choral scholars of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. He currently conducts the Bicester Choral and Operatic Society.