Luso-American pianist Jill Lawson was born in Mexico in 1974 and grew up in Belgium. She is currently based in Portugal.

Jill learned how to read music before she learned the alphabet. Today she speaks five languages fluently, but still prefers to communicate through music rather than through words. Her music provides her with a much richer vocabulary, and it lies closer to her heart. Her life experiences in the last few years have helped to further enrich her range of interpretation abilities. She feels that her way of playing has become more natural, and because of this when performing she feels almost at one with the public.

She won several awards and distinctions in both national and international competitions, such as the 2º prize at the International Vianna da Motta Competition (Macau, 1997); finalist at the Classical Fellowship Awards from the American Pianists Association (Indianapolis, 2003); 4º prize at the International Schubert Competition (Dortmund, 2001); finalist at the International Piano Competition Premi Principat d’Andorra (Andorra, 2001); 1º prize at the Concurso Cidade de Covilhã (Portugal, 2001); 2º prize at the Concurso de Interpretação (Estoril, Portugal, 2001); Laureate of the Tenuto contest (Brussels, 1995).

Jill began her piano studies when she was eight years old in Antwerp with Heidi Hendrickx and Levente Kende.  She later studied in Fiesole with Maria Tipo and in Amsterdam with Jan Wijn. In 2004 she obtained her Master of Music at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore under Leon Fleisher and Ellen Mack.