Clare McNamara
"Otherworldly” mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara brings her versatility to a wide variety of early and new repertoire throughout the United States and abroad. She has maintained affiliations as a soloist and ensemble member with groups such as Skylark, Handel+Haydn Society, Cut Circle, Lorelei Ensemble, and The Boston Camerata.
Clare’s “astonishing” voice is heavily featured in the recent “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s one-to-a-part compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine); she has joined Cut Circle for multiple European festivals (Utrecht, Regensburg, Antwerp, and Maastricht). She was also recently hailed as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” (MusicWeb International) for her solo Hildegard chant on the GRAMMY-nominated Skylark album “Seven” (2018). During her nine years with Lorelei, engagements included collaborations with A Far Cry (Kareem Roustom’s Hurry to the Light) and the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Debussy’s Nocturnes, and George Benjamin’s Dream of the Song). Clare made her New York soloist debut alongside the St. Thomas Fifth Avenue Choir of Men and Boys (Daniel Hyde) in Handel's Messiah (2017). Clare also made her solo debut at Boston’s Symphony Hall in Handel+Haydn Society's 2018 performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor, under the baton of Harry Christophers, and returned later in the year as alto soloist in Bach’s Missa Brevis in G major. Since 2019, Clare has been a rostered alto at the Staunton Music Festival in Staunton, VA.
The 2020-2021 season would have blossomed with solo opportunities: The Boston Camerata’s “A Night’s Tale” and “Three Sisters” (Anne Azéma), and Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Israel in Egypt with Handel+Haydn (Harry Christophers). Clare would have debuted with Tenet (Jolle Greenleaf) and Washington Bach (Dana Marsh). The 2021-2022 season marked a return to performance as a soloist in Washington Bach’s “All that is Rite." The season’s concerts and studio recordings included two Skylark projects: the GRAMMY-nominated album, “it’s a long way,” and an album of a new choral retelling of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” composed by Benedict Sheehan. 2023 will see the release of two further Skylark recordings: “La vie en rose,” and its “Clear Voices in the Dark” program that features Francis Poulenc's Figure Humaine.
Clare rapidly pivoted to digital music creation during the pandemic. She recorded a solo recital and a program of women’s trios for Skylark’s digital subscription platform, Skylark+; she also co-founded a new vocal trio, Ourania, with Sarah Moyer and Janet Stone. In January, 2021, Clare appeared as the vocal soloist (works by Michelle DiBucci and Gustav Mahler) for the United Nations’ Chamber Music Society’s concert for the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, which was globally broadcast on the UN’s YouTube Channel and on Facebook.
Clare holds an AB in Music from Princeton University and an MM in Early Music from the Longy School of Music of Bard College.