Lawrence Rush has worked as a personal chef and caterer in California and as a pastry chef at several restaurants here in New York City. In California, he began catering events while in college. In addition to being a personal chef to families, he was the chef for St. Mary Magdalene rectory in Berkeley. In Manhattan, he was the pastry chef at Bosco, (where his clients touted his tiramisu as the best in the city!) and at Tin Room Café in Brooklyn Heights. Outside of a few classes like the ones offered here, he is self-taught. A love of food and curiosity nurtured his growth as a chef. He worked in several cheese shops here in New York as well, including Murrays, Ideal and Hay Day Market.
As a singer, Lawrence was a full-time member of the San Francisco Opera Chorus, where he also sang and covered small roles. He has sung with the Gregg Smith Singers and with many other choral groups and has performed in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, as well as Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. He was the youngest member of the Young Americans, the world famous show choir. He has performed many roles in opera and musical theater both here and in California, including George in “Sunday in the Park…”, Tobias in “Sweeney Todd”, Peron in “Evita”, Lenski in “Eugene Onegin” and Frederic in “Pirates of Penzance” and played Bob Cratchit in a U.S. tour of “Scrooge, the Musical”. He performed in a cabaret show of his own music and lyrics at Don’t Tell Mamma.
Lawrence is also an award-winning composer and lyricist of musicals, art songs, choral music and cabaret. He was a winner of the Shalshelet Award for Jewish choral music. He has twice been a finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award for two of his musicals, the most recent being an adaptation of “Pride & Prejudice” on which he now has a Tony-nominated director. He is currently working on a new show as well as an Edgar Allan Poe multi-media project and recently made his Carnegie Hall composing debut with his piano piece “Transitions”.