Claire Booth Soprano
Claire Booth was educated at Trinity College Oxford where she gained a Double First Class degree in Modern History. She subsequently trained at the English National Opera Studio’s Bayliss Programme and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and she continues to study with Rudolf Piernay. Recent operatic roles include Hero Béatrice et Benedict, Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro and the title roles in both Cavalli’s La Didone and Rossi’s Orfeo. Other performances have included Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia for ONME, Fiordiligi Cosi fan Tutte for Handmade Opera, Angelica Orlando for New Chamber Opera and Romilda Xerses for the Cheltenham Festival.

Claire has appeared as a recitalist at the Aldeburgh and Cheltenham Festivals, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, National Portrait Gallery and Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford. Claire made her debut at the Wigmore Hall in May 2004 with her regular accompanist Ryan Wigglesworth. Oratorio performances have included Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor, Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Creation and the Bach Passions with ensembles in London; she recently made her Paris debut at the Théâtre de Champs Elysées and at the Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels with the Kings Consort under Robert King, singing Penseroso in Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato.

She has many credits to her name in the field of contemporary music including concerts in London, Turin and Dublin with the London Sinfonietta (Berio, Birtwistle, Takemitsu, Knussen), and has collaborated with many leading conductors such as Knussen, Boulez, Valade and Brabbyns. Also, she broadcasts regularly for the BBC, notably with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in works by Berg (Sieben Frühe Lieder) and Lutoslawski (Chantefleurs et Chantefables). In 2003 she appeared at the Lucerne International Festival with the Lucerne Academy conducted by Pierre Boulez in Schonberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and she returns there to sing Birtwistle’s Nenia in the 2004 series.

Other future plans include appearances for Almeida Opera in the world premiere of Birtwistle’s opera The Story of Io and the role of Mirror in Birtwistle’s opera The Second Mrs. Kong with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In addition to the Wigmore Hall recital, Claire also returns to the concert platform with the BBCSSO, and at the Aldeburgh Festival 2004.

Claire's studies at the NOS are supported by Opera North and the Robert Vivian Memorial Trust, and she has a Sybil Tutton Award.