Born in Wolverhampton, Claire studied at the Birmingham School of Music, Royal Academy of Music with Rae Woodland and Kenneth Bowen, and subsequently with Linda Esther-Grey. She joined Kent Opera during her final year at the Academy, was awarded the Wessex Glyndebourne Association Prize in 1998 and in 1999 made her Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut singing the role of Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito). Further engagements at Glyndebourne included covering the roles of Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes) and the Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), followed by contracts with Opera de Lyon and Opera Europa. One of the country's most adaptable sopranos, Claire also enjoys remarkable success in the early music field, working with ensembles such as The Tallis Scholars and Gabrieli Consort, with whom she made her BBC Proms debut in Handel's Dixit Dominus. She has also recorded the soprano solos in Allegri's Miserere for Regent Records. Claire's oratorio experience is extremely broad; she is particularly renowned for her performances of Verdi's Requiem, Brahms' Requiem and Mozart's C Minor Mass. Recent engagements have included Strauss's Four Last Songs, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony in the Barbican, Mahler's Eighth Symphony in Edinburgh's Usher Hall and the world premiere of Jonathan Dove's The far theatricals of day for Nicholas Cleobury, recently released by Fleet Street Records. Claire's discography also includes the role of The Believer in Rutland Boughton's Bethlehem (Naxos) and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, with counter-tenor Andrew Watts (Fleet Street Records).

contact : claireseaton@msn.com