Betsy Lawrence

Director of JIVE
Artist Lecturer in Voice

Bio

Betsy Lawrence is a proud faculty member of Carnegie Mellon University music department. Along with her duties as a voice instructor, she is the director of the CMU jazz choir. Betsy is a music business consultant helping people learn how to grow their business while doing what they love. She is also the founding director of Pittsburgh Music Masters. PMM workshops hire Broadway stars, musical directors, and the finest collegiate music faculty in the country to teach audition training, songwriting, acting, singing, commercial/jazz voice, college audition prep, and more! 

As a performer Betsy has been dazzling audience’s in all genres of music and entertainment across the globe for over three decades.  A few of her favorite operatic credits include La Traviata with the New York City Opera touring company, Werther with Pittsburgh Opera, and numerous roles with the American Opera Project in New York City. Her theater credits include principal roles with Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Pittsburgh Music Theater, and Stella productions of Hamburg, Germany to name a few.  Her national television credits include the currently running “Red White and Rock,” “The American Sound Track,” “More Rock at 50,” "My Music," "The Roots of Rock and Roll," "The British Invasion," and "Roots in Country" on PBS where she backed up major recording artists, Frankie Valli, Frankie Avalon, Lulu, Gary Puckett, Connie Francis, Little Peggy Marsh, Jimmy Clanton, Mel Carter, Glenn Campbell, and BJ Thomas to name only a few. Betsy most recently returned from Nashville, TN where she appeared as a featured soloist on two PBS television shows, singing country classics and 70’s classic rock.

She has appeared several times as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops Orchestra under the baton of the late Marvin Hamlisch, River City Brass Band, Latshaw Orchestra, and the Manhattan Philharmonic. She is a musical fixture on Pittsburgh television appearing on WQED’s All Star Holiday Jam every year. She has sung for major sporting events including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Pirates, and she has also performed with her band Betsy Lawrence and the Big City Swing at many major high-profile functions including Mario Lemieux International Celebrity Golf Tournament, the Pittsburgh Opera annual fundraiser, the Heart Ball, and Planned Parenthood. Her band has opened for George Benson, Ray Charles.  

Betsy has enjoyed the distinction of being invited to sing at the United Nations for “Nuclear Disarmament Worldwide Conventions” performing to star studded crowds including the likes of Ted Turner, Jane Fonda, Mikhail Gorbachev, Michael Douglas, Ross Perot, Steve Forbes, and Jane Goodall to name few. She was also invited to appear at the French embassy in Washington D.C.  She is featured on many national radio and television commercials including Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Captain Morgan’s Rum, and the "Silver Microphone" award winning Dad's Dog Food, a promotion for CMT (Country Music Television), singing a classic Loretta Lynn song.  She was hand-picked by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo productions to sing the Sirius radio lead in for “The Oprah Winfrey Show” as well as hundreds of jingles for radio and TV.

Betsy is passionate about composing and most recently had her original song placed on the hit show “Arrow.”  As a finalist in the Lilith Faire International Songwriting Competition, Betsy was invited to perform her song “Holland” at the famed Opera House in Toronto, Canada. Her song “Stronger” was used as the official SWAN day Pittsburgh in the 2012 performance and campaign.  Betsy is one of the most in demand vocal instructors in the city of Pittsburgh.   

She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in Voice Performance and Musical Theatre, and a Master of Music from Manhattan school of music in Opera.