A graduate of University College Dublin and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, bass-baritone Thomas Lawlor played over seventy roles in opera and operetta, appearing with companies ranging from the D’Oyly Carte to the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera.

A guest at international festivals throughout the world, he appeared in concerts and recitals in major concert halls, particularly in Britain, Ireland and the US, and performed under some of the most distinguished conductors.

His recordings and films included performances of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Televised operas in which he participated ranged from Mozart to Offenbach, Richard Strauss and Stravinsky. Formerly a director in the opera departments of the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music in London, he became a member of the music faculty of Rhode Island College, where he taught voice and directed in the Opera Workshop.

Lawlor was the founder and artistic director of Beavertail Opera Productions in Rhode Island.