Edward Laurenson made his operatic debut in the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus for New Zealand Opera’s Eugene Onegin in 2009 and has since performed in the company’s seasons of Rigoletto, The Bartered Bride, Madame Butterfly and Don Giovanni. In 2012 he was awarded Vocal National Young Performer of the Year by the Performing Arts Competitions Association of New Zealand and the Lieder prize at the New Zealand Aria competition.

Edward comes to opera through musical theatre and has performed lead roles in The Sound of Music, West Side Story and Grease.

In 2014 Edward was awarded a Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation tuition grant to support the scholarship he has been granted to attend the 3-year studies course under the tutelage of Yvonne Kenny at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In 2017 he received further grants from the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation which helped him to accept an invitation from Cesar Ulloa (Chair of Voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music) to audition for a place at the Conservatory. He was subsequently advised that he had not only been successful in securing a place at the School but had also been granted their only full-tuition scholarship.