LIVE24SEVEN // Interview THE INT E R V I EW – LAUR ENC E K I L S B Y
Laurence, having won the BBC2 Young Chorister of the Year Competition in 2009, was also offered scholarships by The Royal Academy of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. It is unprecedented for a pupil to have been offered scholarships by the top three music colleges.
For those with a more practiced and discerning ear than my own, I would imagine his performance was sublime. From my perspective an obvious comparison would be to go back to that other acclaimed schoolboy chorister, Aled Jones who Laurence has sung with at the Royal Albert Hall. Both have extraordinary vocal range and dexterity but I would imagine Kilsby is given more to theatrical performance and articulation. No doubt musical theatre would be at his feet if he took that route.
A quick check on YouTube will reveal Laurence singing Adel’s ‘Someone like you’ several years ago. Equate that to an X Factor audition and surely he would have gone close. For sure that is probably a huge slight on his professionalism but sometimes you just want to ask the question.
Also on YouTube is ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Miserables, a showstopper sung by a much older man. In the often-used phrase and cliché, he nails it. I would imagine there aren’t many things he doesn’t nail including the anthem ‘I am what I am’ which he sings with conviction and meaning.
He does not come from a musical background or anywhere with outstanding musical heritage but a charming backwater in rural Stow-on- the-Wold, Gloucestershire.
Laurence joined Dean Close School, Cheltenham in 2008 as a member of the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum. Dean Close School is a co-educational day and boarding school established in 1886 and is renowned for focusing on
individual development. The School believes that education is as much about building character and relationships as it is about gaining knowledge and aims to broaden the opportunities of each and every pupil through an exceptional array of facilities in music, theatre and sport.
“Dean Close has been absolutely essential in nurturing my talent,” explains Laurence, “It has kept me grounded but exceptionally focused and allowed me to develop as a complete person rather than just musically.”
His Director of Music, Helen Porter, said, “It is very rare for a school to have such a naturally gifted and intuitive tenor and it has been a pleasure to watch him grow as a musician and consummate performer during his years at Dean Close. We are convinced he has an amazing future ahead.”
Under the direction of Benjamin Nicholas, he has toured in the USA, France and Germany and made a number of recordings on the Delphian label. He appears as a soloist on the highly-acclaimed recording of Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Solemn Vespers and has sung the treble solos in Handel’s Messiah and Brahms’s German Requiem, as well as the Grammy nominated album 'Handel's L'Allegro, Penseroso ed il Moderato' with the Gabrieli Consort. He has also performed alongside Lesley Garratt also at the Royal Albert Hall.
As a tenor he has sung the Tenor solos in Bach's Magnificat at the Pittville Pump Rooms, as well as the Messiah at Tewkesbury Abbey and various classical concerts at Dean Close. He has been taught by Bronwen Mills throughout his time at the school and has had master classes with singers including Sarah Connolly, James Gilchrist, John Mitchinson, Robert Dean and Russell Smythe. Laurence is a keen cellist and pianist and has been a key member of the drama department at Dean Close, playing lead roles such as Tevye in 'Fiddler on the Roof', C.K Dexter Haven in Cole Porter's 'High Society', Fagin in 'Oliver!' and Don Lockwood in 'Singin' in the Rain'. Laurence was accepted into the Welsh National Opera's Youth production for 2016, a new commission called 'Kommilitonen!' which received much praise, including a five star review from the Guardian.
On receiving his place at the Royal College, Laurence said, “I am overjoyed to have the opportunity to continue my passion for singing and performing. I am very excited about living and studying in London and progressing, hopefully, into the profession.”
I talked with Laurence as he was just completing his ‘A’ Level art and preparing for one of his many school farewell concerts. It is fascinating to observe a young man, barely out of his boy skin, on the cusp of extraordinary achievement. Unquestionably he has huge resources of unfettered talent just about held in check by a school wise enough to know that nobody is bigger than its sum of parts.
With exceptional grace and well-proportioned modesty Kilsby is also wise enough to acknowledge that, “I’ve never felt that I’m exceptional to the exclusion of everybody else, I have just felt privileged to be in an environment that recognises people for what they are irrespective of where their talents lie.”
Privileged indeed he is but it is a talent in which we all can share and follow. Laurence Kilsby, a name without doubt, which we can, with some certainty, predict that we are going to be hearing an awful lot more of.
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