The 2009 – 10 season marks the beginning of Layla Claire’s participation in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera. In December, she will perform at L'Opera de Montreal’s 30th Gala and San Franicisco Symphony’s New Year’s Eve Masquerade Ball. On February 21, she will give a recital presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society followed by her New York City recital debut on March 12. In July Layla Claire will appear with James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.
Praised for her thoughtful characterizations and sheer musicality, Layla Claire’s interpretations of Mozart’s heroines have garnered accolades throughout North America and Europe. With James Levine and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, she has performed the roles of Fiordiligi (2007) and Donna Anna (2009). She has been hailed as “the quintessential Susanna” for her 2009 performance in Le Nozze di Figaro at Palm Beach Opera. With the Curtis Opera Theatre she sang the roles of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro. In the fall of 2008 she toured Belgium performing Mozart arias with the early music ensemble La Petite Bande.
Layla Claire’s career highlights include singing the Messiah for her Atlanta Symphony Orchestra debut, her Montreal Symphony Orchestra debut as Clotilde in Norma under the baton of music director Kent Nagano, and Cairo Opera Orchestra’s Gala under conductor Nader Abbassi. She performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to close the Boca Festival of the Arts with the Russian National Orchestra under the baton of Itzhak Perlman.
Passionate about contemporary works and early music, Layla Claire performed the role of Margarita Xirgu in the Opera Company of Philadelphia/Curtis Institute of Music co-production of Golijov’s Ainadamar. She has sung a bouquet of contemporary Canadian works including Morawetz’s The Diary of Anne Frank with the Laval Symphony Orchestra and Quatrains by Jean Papineau-Couture, as well as works by Michael Matthews, Imant Raminsh, and Raffi Armenian. She won First Prize in the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (2005), resulting in an extensive recital tour across Canada as well as the Brandon Prize for best performance of the commissioned work, Disordered Songs by David R. Scott. Her early music performances include Bach’s Mass in b minor with the Atlanta Symphony and the Ft. Smith Symphony, Vivaldi’s Gloria with Montreal’s Michel Brousseau, Erisbe in Cavalli’s l’Ormindo with the Curtis Opera Theatre, The Fairy Queen by Purcell with The Baroque Atelier of l’Université de Montreal, Bach cantatas with The Helmut Rilling Bach Orchestra, and the Pergolesi Stabat Mater.
Past seasons have included performances of Elijah with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, Britten’s Les Illuminations with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra, and opera scenes with the Leonardo da Vinci Orchestra. She has sung Mozart arias with the Laval Symphony Orchestra under Jean-Francois Rivest and performed Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate with the East Texas Symphony Orchestra.
Layla Claire has won numerous awards including the Mozart Prize at the Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition (2008). She was a 2008 Queen Elisabeth Competition Laureate and is a CBC Radio-Canada Jeunes Artistes recital winner, a recipient of a J. Desmarais Foundation Bursaries, and a proud recipient of a Canada Council Grant. She has also taken prizes at the Palm Beach Opera Competition, The George London Foundation Competition, and the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists Competition.
Originally from Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, Layla Claire studied voice at l’Université de Montreal before attending the Curtis Institute of Music. She currently resides in New York City.
