Ashley Lawrence (musician)

[1] 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.

In 1972 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, and in 1973 Music Director of the same company,[2] leaving in 1987.

He also regularly conducted the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet, including on a tour to his home country in late 1989.

[3] 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.

In preparation for touring engagements with the Royal Ballet, he would often go well in advance to countries as distant as China and India to take the local orchestra through the music.

A 1972 BBC radio recording of Walter Leigh's Jolly Roger conducted by Lawrence, with Maryetta and Vernon Midgley, Helen Landis, Alan Dudley and Neilson Taylor among the cast, was issued by Lyrita in 2015.