Evan J Lawson.

Artistic director, composer, conductor.

I first started playing music in grade 5, because my best friend had just started playing an instrument. From the moment I picked up an instrument, I started improvising on it. That lead to writing my ideas down. That lead to organising groups to perform those ideas. That lead to conducting those groups, and here we are.
So many wonderful shows since 2009 it’s hard for me to pick just one. My opera’s Calypso in 2013, Orpheus in 2019, The Sea in 2023 and Labyrinth in 2024 are major highlights for me, and our 2014 Melbourne Recital Centre concert The Garden of Ice is a huge favorite. I also can’t forget our portrait concert of Gerard Grisey where we performed the epic and deeply mystical 4 Songs to Cross the Threshold.
I am an exceptionally good whistler.
To choose is torture, but Turangalila Symphony by Olivier Messiaen for music, Narkissos by Jess for visual art, I don’t believe in outer space by William Forsyth for dance, L’mour de loin by Kaija Saariaho for Opera, Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim for musicals and Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde for literature. Okay, I can’t pick one…
Some works that have given me the most joy - conducting any Beethoven or Brahms symphony, the early works of Arnold Schoenberg, Mozart operas, and working and collaborating with composers and songwriters on wonderful new sounds, especially Addison, Max Lawrence, Diimpa, May Lyon, Samantha Wolfe and so many more.

Evan J Lawson (b.1989, he/they) is one of Australia’s leading queer artists, working at the forefront of contemporary culture as composer, writer, curator, and conductor, chiefly as artistic director of interdisciplinary company Forest Collective.

Hailed by Clive O’Connell that ...the sonorities that emerged often proved extraordinary... Evan has been composing music since the age of 10, is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, and developing artist programs with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Malthouse Theatre, the Australian Conducting Academy and Gragenegg Festival. In Australia, he has studied with Benjamin Northey, Richard Gill, Kevin March, and Johanna Selleck, and internationally with David Aronson, Christopher Hogwood, and Matthias Pintscher who has said that his music is serene, deep, it's even breathing the heritage of Mahler.

Evan was composer-in-residence at Billilla Mansion in 2015, a member of the Academy of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2020 and 2021, served as the principal conductor for the Bendigo Festival of Exploratory Music in 2019, and is currently musical director of the Monash University Choral Society.

Lawson is an Associate Represented Artist with the Australian Music Centre.

With a background as a singer, and with a keen interest in theatre and the human voice, Evan is the creator of several critically acclaimed, unorthodox music-theatre presentations. These works include his 2013 opera Calypso (Forest Collective, Samuel Yeo libretto, Stephanie Osztreicher dir.), the 2019 dance-opera Orpheus (Forest Collective, Ashley Dougan chor., Density512 & Prismatx Ensemble) described by Clive O’Connell that ...Lawson found a striking compositional vein that promised a sort of catharsis…, the 2021 micro-opera Vois (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Claire Tipy libretto, Geordie Brookman dir.), and most recently in 2023’s The Sea (Forest Collective & BK Opera, Kate Millett dir.), described by Patricia Di Risio as a highly atmospheric opera that moves the audience through its fervent composition. In 2024, he presented Labyrinth (Forest Collective, Daniel Szesiong Todd lib., Ashley Dougan chor.) described by Paul Sellar as an Intelligently conceived, thrilling and evocative new work.

Evan has performed across Australia, Asia, Europe, and the USA, collaborating with a variety of companies, such as the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Moravska Filharmonie, Forest Collective, ANAM Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, Melbourne Youth Orchestra, Geelong Symphony Orchestra, Density512, Performance Space, Ranters Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra, Tacet(I) Ensemble, Homophonic! and Syzygy Ensemble.

He has served as an assistant conductor to Brett Dean, Warwick Stenngards, and Christopher Hogwood.

His work has been featured at prominent events and venues, such as the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Metropolis New Music Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Grafenegg Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, International Composition Institute of Thailand, Mardi Gras, Midsumma Festival, SoundSCAPE New Music Festival, Melbourne Recital Centre, CarriageWorks, Jinji Lake Concert Hall, and the Universities of Melbourne, Paris, Texas & Oregon.

Evan J Lawson.

Previous Forest Collective performances.

Forest Collective.