Photos by Allana Taranto, Ars Magna Studio
SHORT BIO
Mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara's “astonishing” (Gramophone Magazine) voice has been heard on more than 20 albums, and in concert with Skylark, Emmanuel Music Boston, Handel+Haydn, Ensemble Altera, The Thirteen, Lorelei, Cut Circle, The Washington Bach Consort, Nightingale, Tapestry, the Staunton Music Festival, Blue Heron, and The Boston Camerata. Clare continues honing her craft as a Bach interpreter this season as alto soloist with A Far Cry (BWV80), The Thirteen (St. Matthew), and Emmanuel (St. Matthew, BWV27 and more). She is also a GRAMMY-nominated soloist, hailed as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” (MusicWeb International) for her Hildegard monody on Skylark's album “Seven.” In addition to many European festival performances (Cut Circle and Skylark), Clare sang as alto soloist at Bachfest (2024) in Leipzig, Germany, with Boston’s Emmanuel Music. Clare holds an A.B. in Music from Princeton University and an M.M. in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. Often found reading fantasy or digging in her garden, she resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and son.
Mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara's “astonishing” (Gramophone Magazine) voice has been heard on more than 20 albums, and in concert with Skylark, Emmanuel Music Boston, Handel+Haydn, Ensemble Altera, The Thirteen, Lorelei, Cut Circle, The Washington Bach Consort, Nightingale, Tapestry, the Staunton Music Festival, Blue Heron, and The Boston Camerata. Clare continues honing her craft as a Bach interpreter this season as alto soloist with A Far Cry (BWV80), The Thirteen (St. Matthew), and Emmanuel (St. Matthew, BWV27 and more). She is also a GRAMMY-nominated soloist, hailed as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” (MusicWeb International) for her Hildegard monody on Skylark's album “Seven.” In addition to many European festival performances (Cut Circle and Skylark), Clare sang as alto soloist at Bachfest (2024) in Leipzig, Germany, with Boston’s Emmanuel Music. Clare holds an A.B. in Music from Princeton University and an M.M. in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. Often found reading fantasy or digging in her garden, she resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and son.
MICRO BIO
Mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara's “astonishing” (Gramophone Magazine) voice has been heard on more than 20 albums; and in concert with Emmanuel Music Boston, Handel+Haydn, Ensemble Altera, The Thirteen, and Nightingale, among many others. Clare continues honing her craft as a Bach interpreter this season as alto soloist with A Far Cry (BWV80), and St. Matthew Passions with The Thirteen and Emmanuel. Clare holds music degrees from Princeton University and the Longy School of Music of Bard College. Often found reading fantasy or digging in her garden, she resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and son.
Mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara's “astonishing” (Gramophone Magazine) voice has been heard on more than 20 albums; and in concert with Emmanuel Music Boston, Handel+Haydn, Ensemble Altera, The Thirteen, and Nightingale, among many others. Clare continues honing her craft as a Bach interpreter this season as alto soloist with A Far Cry (BWV80), and St. Matthew Passions with The Thirteen and Emmanuel. Clare holds music degrees from Princeton University and the Longy School of Music of Bard College. Often found reading fantasy or digging in her garden, she resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and son.
LONG BIO
Clare brings almost two decades of artistry and expertise to her work as an oratorio soloist and choral artist.
To date, she has recoded more than twenty albums, including three GRAMMY-nominated albums with Skylark. In the 2026-2027 season she adds two more albums to her oeuvre: “Gentle Dark” with Skylark (works by Greg Brown and Eleanor Daley), and “Declarations” with Ensemble Altera (world premiere work by Piers Connor Kennedy). MusicWeb International has hailed her as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” for her solo Hildegard chant on Skylark's GRAMMY-nominated “Seven” (2018); her “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine).
She has worked with Skylark, Handel+Haydn, Emmanuel Music Boston, The Thirteen, Ensemble Altera, Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, The Boston Camerata, Blue Heron, Tapestry, Lorelei, The Washington Bach Consort, Cut Circle, and the Staunton Music Festival. Clare has also performed at multiple European festivals: Bachfest (Leipzig, Germany), Tenebrae’s Holy Week Festival (London, UK), Utrecht Early Music (multiple cities in the Netherlands), Musica Sacra (Maastricht, Netherlands), AMUZ/Laus Polyphoniae (Antwerp, Belgium), and the Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg, Germany).
Clare has special affinity with early music, and is gaining recognition as an in-demand Bach interpreter. The 2026-2027 season includes extensive Bach solo work: BWV80 with A Far Cry, St. Matthews with The Thirteen and Emmanuel Music, and BWV 27 with Boston’s Emmanuel Music. Past credits include multiple solo Bach turns with Harry Christophers and the Handel+Haydn Society (Boston’s Symphony Hall), Bach with Ryan Turner and Emmanuel Music, Bach and Handel with Dana Marsh and The Washington Bach Consort, and Handel with Daniel Hyde and the choir of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue.
Clare has developed a fascination with the music of Hildegard von Bingen. She routinely prepares transcriptions of her work and provides performance coaching in order to align performances with the nuances of the original neumatic notation. In addition to frequently performing Hildegard with Lorelei, Skylark, and Staunton, Clare has sung the role of Humilitas in her Ordo Virtutum (Ensemble Musica Humana).
Equally at home with new music, 2026-2027 sees Clare premiere two choral works by composer Greg Brown, first with Nightingale Ensemble (“Strange Land”) at Boston’s Museum of Science, and next with Skylark (“Gentle Dark”) at Phillips Exeter Academy. Clare was a core member of Lorelei Ensemble, the groundbreaking 9-voice women’s new music ensemble, from 2011-2019, during which time she contributed to five of their recordings and premiered many new works for trebles. Clare was part of their Carnegie Hall debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons as the octet of voices featured in George Benjamin’s “The Dream of the Song;” likewise, she and the ensemble joined as the chorus in the BSO’s concert production of Suor Angelica. Clare and Lorelei also appeared in Tanglewood's 2016 and 2017 Festival of Contemporary Music for performances of Benjamin's work as well as György Ligeti's "Clocks and Clouds." Clare and Lorelei collaborated with chamber orchestra A Far Cry to premiere a new work by Kareem Roustom based on the stories of the women in “The Odyssey” (2019).
In pure digital performance, Clare provided solo vocals for “On the Nature of Things” commissioned by the internationally-recognized modern dance troupe Pilobolus Dance Theatre from composers Michelle DiBucci and Ed Bilous; Pilobolus maintains this work as a regular centerpiece of their active performance repertoire. Clare also 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 that gave an entirely remotely recorded video concert on Boston’s SoHIP performance series. 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 believes in a community-based, multi-generational approach to music making: that cities should support their local musicians, and that the best art is created when artists of all ages are empowered to perform together. Clare also believes in the creative blossoming inherent to becoming a parent. Despite the logistical challenges an artist faces alongside parenthood, the world deserves the art of those who also labor as nurturers.
Clare has degrees from Princeton University and The Longy School of Music. She currently resides in the Boston area with her husband, son, and mother. Much like Hildegard, she delights in gardening.
Clare brings almost two decades of artistry and expertise to her work as an oratorio soloist and choral artist.
To date, she has recoded more than twenty albums, including three GRAMMY-nominated albums with Skylark. In the 2026-2027 season she adds two more albums to her oeuvre: “Gentle Dark” with Skylark (works by Greg Brown and Eleanor Daley), and “Declarations” with Ensemble Altera (world premiere work by Piers Connor Kennedy). MusicWeb International has hailed her as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” for her solo Hildegard chant on Skylark's GRAMMY-nominated “Seven” (2018); her “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine).
She has worked with Skylark, Handel+Haydn, Emmanuel Music Boston, The Thirteen, Ensemble Altera, Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, The Boston Camerata, Blue Heron, Tapestry, Lorelei, The Washington Bach Consort, Cut Circle, and the Staunton Music Festival. Clare has also performed at multiple European festivals: Bachfest (Leipzig, Germany), Tenebrae’s Holy Week Festival (London, UK), Utrecht Early Music (multiple cities in the Netherlands), Musica Sacra (Maastricht, Netherlands), AMUZ/Laus Polyphoniae (Antwerp, Belgium), and the Tage Alter Musik (Regensburg, Germany).
Clare has special affinity with early music, and is gaining recognition as an in-demand Bach interpreter. The 2026-2027 season includes extensive Bach solo work: BWV80 with A Far Cry, St. Matthews with The Thirteen and Emmanuel Music, and BWV 27 with Boston’s Emmanuel Music. Past credits include multiple solo Bach turns with Harry Christophers and the Handel+Haydn Society (Boston’s Symphony Hall), Bach with Ryan Turner and Emmanuel Music, Bach and Handel with Dana Marsh and The Washington Bach Consort, and Handel with Daniel Hyde and the choir of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue.
Clare has developed a fascination with the music of Hildegard von Bingen. She routinely prepares transcriptions of her work and provides performance coaching in order to align performances with the nuances of the original neumatic notation. In addition to frequently performing Hildegard with Lorelei, Skylark, and Staunton, Clare has sung the role of Humilitas in her Ordo Virtutum (Ensemble Musica Humana).
Equally at home with new music, 2026-2027 sees Clare premiere two choral works by composer Greg Brown, first with Nightingale Ensemble (“Strange Land”) at Boston’s Museum of Science, and next with Skylark (“Gentle Dark”) at Phillips Exeter Academy. Clare was a core member of Lorelei Ensemble, the groundbreaking 9-voice women’s new music ensemble, from 2011-2019, during which time she contributed to five of their recordings and premiered many new works for trebles. Clare was part of their Carnegie Hall debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons as the octet of voices featured in George Benjamin’s “The Dream of the Song;” likewise, she and the ensemble joined as the chorus in the BSO’s concert production of Suor Angelica. Clare and Lorelei also appeared in Tanglewood's 2016 and 2017 Festival of Contemporary Music for performances of Benjamin's work as well as György Ligeti's "Clocks and Clouds." Clare and Lorelei collaborated with chamber orchestra A Far Cry to premiere a new work by Kareem Roustom based on the stories of the women in “The Odyssey” (2019).
In pure digital performance, Clare provided solo vocals for “On the Nature of Things” commissioned by the internationally-recognized modern dance troupe Pilobolus Dance Theatre from composers Michelle DiBucci and Ed Bilous; Pilobolus maintains this work as a regular centerpiece of their active performance repertoire. Clare also 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 that gave an entirely remotely recorded video concert on Boston’s SoHIP performance series. 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 believes in a community-based, multi-generational approach to music making: that cities should support their local musicians, and that the best art is created when artists of all ages are empowered to perform together. Clare also believes in the creative blossoming inherent to becoming a parent. Despite the logistical challenges an artist faces alongside parenthood, the world deserves the art of those who also labor as nurturers.
Clare has degrees from Princeton University and The Longy School of Music. She currently resides in the Boston area with her husband, son, and mother. Much like Hildegard, she delights in gardening.
