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Laura Claycomb Putting the color into coloratura

Biography

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Grammy® Award winning soprano Laura Claycomb has firmly established herself as one of the finest operatic coloratura sopranos of her generation, best known for her ethereal high notes, impeccable musicianship, and dramatic stage presence. Ms. Claycomb has appeared repeatedly with the Paris Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Théâtre de la Monnaie, the London Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Le Concert d’Astrée, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Further career highlights range from engagements at the Salzburg Festival and the Lucerne Festival, to the BBC Proms and the title role of Linda di Chamounix at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

After maternity leave and the Covid Pandemic, Laura came back to Salerno, Italy in May, 2022 to sing Carmina Burana with the Teatro Verdi orchestra and chorus. She repeated the concerts in September with the same orchestra at the Regio di Caserta, in the “Un’estate da Re” festival. In 2023, she sang a gala concert of Gershwin songs with the Magna Grecia Orchestra for the beginning of the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, Puglia (Italy.)

Part of  2019 was spent on maternity leave, while 2020/2021 saw Laura singing Mahler’s 4th symphony with the Fort Worth Symphony and Roberto Abbado, Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the Bergen Philharmonic and Lionel Bringuier, as well as concerts of Poulenc’s Stabat Mater with Torino VocalEnsemble, Davide Benetti and Antonio Valentino at the MITO Festival.

2018-2019 found her in Dallas for her first Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, in Paris for Stabat Maters by Scarlatti and Pergolesi with Speranza Scappucci and Il Pomo D’Oro, in Israel for Mozart with Alexander Bernstein and the Israel Camerata, in a recital and masterclass tour in the U.S., and with the Houston Symphony for Carmina Burana.

In 2016/17, Laura went to Beijing, China as Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in Geneva as Malwina in Marschner’s Der Vampyr, in concerts led by Emmanuelle Haïm with Le Concert D’Astrée at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Disney Hall, as well as in Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 (Kaddish) with Marin Alsop and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican.

2015/16 saw Laura as Tytania with the Bergen National Opera, as Ophélie in a concert version of Hamlet in Moscow, as well as Strauss’ Brentano Lieder with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson-Thomas, the title role in the world premiere of Lori Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter and galas in Israel.

The 2014-2015 season saw her as Amina in La sonnambula at the Bolshoi Theater, concert engagements with the Oregon Symphony and Palermo Opera for Carmina Burana, Mercury Baroque in a performance with David Daniels, as Lucia di Lammermoor with New Orleans Opera, Cunegonde in Candide with Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Maestra Speranza Scapucci, likewise in Florence.

In the 2013-2014 season Ms. Claycomb made her Glyndebourne debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos with music director Vladimir Jurowsky conducting, which was released on DVD/BlueRay. Additionally, she sang her first Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor with the Bregenz Festival, reprised her Adele in Die Fledermaus at Houston Grand Opera, returned to the Israeli Philharmonic for Carmina Burana and to the San Francisco Symphony for Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, debuted the role of the Czarina of Shemakha in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel with Bergen Opera, and returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Swedish Radio Orchestra in Lutoslawski’s  Chantefleurs et Chantefables with Lionel Bringuier.

Ms. Claycomb began her career as an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera, where she performed over a dozen roles including Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Marie in La fille du régiment. She first captured international attention at the age of 24, when she assumed the role of Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. She has since sung Giulietta with the Bastille Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Karlsruhe Opera and the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchester in Munich. Since her meteoric rise to prominence, Ms. Claycomb has proven herself to be an exceptionally versatile soprano, performing more than 75 roles in dozens of works by composers from Monteverdi to Messiaen.

Of note, Ms. Claycomb performed her signature roles of Gilda in Rigoletto with Dallas Opera (earning her the Dallas Opera’s Maria Callas Debut Artist Award) and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Houston Grand Opera, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and with Sebastian Weigle at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Pittsburgh Opera and in Tel Aviv with Daniel Oren conducting, Romilda in Handel’s Serse with Houston Grand Opera, the heroines in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann in Moscow, and Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress  in Lyon, Brussels, and the Opéra National de Paris.

Ms. Claycomb has emerged as a concert repertoire powerhouse, having performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Les Arts Florissants, among those already mentioned. She has tackled soloist roles in Orff’s Carmina burana (National Symphony, LA Philharmonic, and Danish Radio Symphony with the late Frühbeck de Burgos), Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and oratorio Christus am Ölberge, the latter with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Ms. Claycomb is among today’s foremost Mahler sopranos, having sung solos in the composer’s Symphonies Nos. 24, and 8 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Maggio Musicale di Firenze, and Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, with Tilson-Thomas, Gergiev, Honeck, Inkinen, and Abbado/Mattheuz. She appeared to great acclaim in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at Carnegie Hall and on a European tour with Michael Tilson Thomas and the SFSO. She has been featured on San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas albums of Mahler’s Symphony Nos. 4 and 8, the latter of which was awarded three Grammy® awards in 2009. She also recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra.

High-profile productions starring Ms. Claycomb that led to live recordings include Katharina Thoma’s 2013 Glyndebourne production of Ariadne auf Naxos, Alan Platel and Fabrizio Cassol’s Pitié with Cypres Records, Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Colin Davis as well as with Roger Norrington and the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, and Robert LePage’s production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress in Brussels.

Ms. Claycomb’s extensive recording catalog includes numerous albums of bel canto operas and chamber music with Britain’s Opera Rara label such as Handel’s Arcadian Duets with Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert D’Astrée, Ligeti’s Le grand macabre with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the London Sinfonietta, Carmina burana with the London Symphony Orchestra and Richard Hickox (Chandos) as well as Fauré’s Requiem with the San Francisco Boys’ Choir and Ian Robertson.

Ms. Claycomb has collaborated with renowned conductors Pierre Boulez, Patrick Summers, Richard Hickox, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Daniel Oren, Pinchas Steinberg, Paavo Järvi, and Sir Colin Davis and has originated many new productions with high-profile stage directors including Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, Katharina Thoma, James Robinson, and David Alden. Early in her career, she earned the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Pegasus Prize at Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Operetta Prize at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna, and first prize in the National Opera Association Competition in the U.S.

She has developed a strong interest in the training and nurturing of the next generation of operatic artists and served as consultant for the Bolshoi Young Artist Program since its inception, teaching and giving master classes there.  She has given master classes at the Centre for Operatic Studies in Sulmona, Italy, at the TSP in Novafeltria, Italy, at the Associazione Musicale Tito Gobbi near Rome, as well as at universities, conservatories (SMU, University of Texas-Austin, USC, Loyola, Texas State University, Baylor, University of Colorado, Southwestern University), and at other opera house’s young artist programs (Opera Colorado, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera), as well as developing a new performance-based two-year program in Piemonte for young artists starting in 2023.  A native of Texas, Ms. Claycomb resides with her husband and two children in Turin, Italy.


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Guestbook

  • Hi Laura - It’s been a number of years since we last saw each other which might have been the St Francois d’Assis

  • Hi Laura Hello from Singapore! Big fan of your technique videos and performances on Youtube. Been a singer for about

  • Hello Ms Claycomb, hope everything is well with you. i am Tata, live in Boston and study vocal. I found your v

  • Hi Laura, It has been great to find this. I have admired you since our days in NATS (I was in OK at OCU). I don't know i

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Young Artists’ Corner

My popular advice for young singers: The very first masterclass I gave, I jotted down a few ideas of things I wish I had known when I was just out of college; that advice has ballooned into this Young Artists Corner throughout my career. A book is forthcoming from this information, but in the meanwhile, there is plenty to read.

 » Young Artists Corner

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