Photos by Allana Taranto, Ars Magna Studio
SHORT BIO
“Otherworldly” mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara's ensemble affiliations have included Skylark, Emmanuel Music, Handel + Haydn, Blue Heron, Lorelei Ensemble, The Washington Bach Consort, Tapestry, the Staunton Music Festival, and The Boston Camerata. Clare’s “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine); she has also joined the group for numerous European festival performances. MusicWeb International hailed her as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” for her solo Hildegard chant on Skylark's “Seven” (2018), one of the ensemble's three GRAMMY-nominated albums. As a member of Emmanuel Music’s regular alto roster, she traveled to Bachfest in Leipzig, Germany, in June 2024, and continues honing her craft as a Bach interpreter. 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. She resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and son.
“Otherworldly” mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara's ensemble affiliations have included Skylark, Emmanuel Music, Handel + Haydn, Blue Heron, Lorelei Ensemble, The Washington Bach Consort, Tapestry, the Staunton Music Festival, and The Boston Camerata. Clare’s “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine); she has also joined the group for numerous European festival performances. MusicWeb International hailed her as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” for her solo Hildegard chant on Skylark's “Seven” (2018), one of the ensemble's three GRAMMY-nominated albums. As a member of Emmanuel Music’s regular alto roster, she traveled to Bachfest in Leipzig, Germany, in June 2024, and continues honing her craft as a Bach interpreter. 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. She resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and son.
MEDIUM BIO
“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 with groups such as Skylark, Emmanuel Music, Cut Circle, Lorelei Ensemble, The Washington Bach Consort, Tapestry, Blue Heron, the Staunton Music Festival, and The Boston Camerata.
A member of the H+H chorus since 2014, Clare has appeared as alto soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor and his Missa Brevis in G major (Harry Christophers), where she was praised for her “rich timbre and expressive phrasing” and was labeled a “vocal highlight” (Boston Classical Review). Clare’s “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine); she also joined the group for numerous European festival performances. She was hailed as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” (MusicWeb International) for her solo Hildegard chant on the Skylark album “Seven” (2018), one of three GRAMMY-nominations for the ensemble. Clare appears on eight other albums with Skylark, including “Clear Voices in the Dark,” the first US recording of Francis Poulenc’s tour-de-force Figure Humaine (2024). During her nine years with Lorelei, she collaborated with A Far Cry and the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, and Carnegie Hall). She joined Emmanuel Music for Bachfest in Leipzig, Germany, in June 2024.
In January, 2021, Clare appeared as a soloist for the United Nations’ Chamber Music Society’s concert for the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, globally broadcast online. Other online concerts have included pandemic-tide digital music creation: a vocal recital with her husband Ian Garvie (piano), a program of women’s trios for Skylark’s digital subscription platform, Skylark+, and a concert of early 3-voice repertoire with new ensemble Ourania presented by Boston's SoHIP.
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. She resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and infant son.
“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 with groups such as Skylark, Emmanuel Music, Cut Circle, Lorelei Ensemble, The Washington Bach Consort, Tapestry, Blue Heron, the Staunton Music Festival, and The Boston Camerata.
A member of the H+H chorus since 2014, Clare has appeared as alto soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor and his Missa Brevis in G major (Harry Christophers), where she was praised for her “rich timbre and expressive phrasing” and was labeled a “vocal highlight” (Boston Classical Review). Clare’s “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine); she also joined the group for numerous European festival performances. She was hailed as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” (MusicWeb International) for her solo Hildegard chant on the Skylark album “Seven” (2018), one of three GRAMMY-nominations for the ensemble. Clare appears on eight other albums with Skylark, including “Clear Voices in the Dark,” the first US recording of Francis Poulenc’s tour-de-force Figure Humaine (2024). During her nine years with Lorelei, she collaborated with A Far Cry and the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Andris Nelsons (Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, and Carnegie Hall). She joined Emmanuel Music for Bachfest in Leipzig, Germany, in June 2024.
In January, 2021, Clare appeared as a soloist for the United Nations’ Chamber Music Society’s concert for the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, globally broadcast online. Other online concerts have included pandemic-tide digital music creation: a vocal recital with her husband Ian Garvie (piano), a program of women’s trios for Skylark’s digital subscription platform, Skylark+, and a concert of early 3-voice repertoire with new ensemble Ourania presented by Boston's SoHIP.
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. She resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and infant son.
LONG BIO
Praised for her “lushly evocative mezzo” and “attentive and precise” musicianship, Clare McNamara brings her signature vocal quality and sensitive interpretation to a wide variety of repertoire throughout the United States and abroad. The 2018 recipient of the prestigious St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award, Clare has performed at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall, among other world-renowned venues. Though particularly adept at early and new music, Clare’s unique instrument is suited to many kinds of repertoire and is only growing in versatility.
Clare 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; she returned later in the year as alto soloist in Bach’s Missa Brevis in G major. Boston Classical Review praised her “rich timbre and expressive phrasing,” calling her duet with soprano Sarah Yanovitch the “vocal highlight of the second half.” Clare also made her New York City solo debut as alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Daniel Hyde and the Choristers of New York’s St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (2017). Clare performed the role of Brängane in the 2017 and 2018 revival performances of Boston Camerata’s medieval pastiche, “Tristan & Iseult.” Other soloist credits include the role of Mother in Stephen Paulus' modern church opera "The Three Hermits" (Harvard University Choir), and many turns as alto oratorio soloist with organizations such as Coro Allegro, The Boston Cecilia, and the Tufts University Choirs.
Since the pandemic, Clare has been developing and finessing her skills as an interpreter of Bach. She made her soloist debut with the Washington Bach Consort in the fall of 2021 in Bach’s Mass in A Major (BWV 234) as well as Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Nisi Dominus. As a newer member of Boston’s Emmanuel Music’s regular alto roster, she has had multiple turns as an alto soloist on their weekly Bach cantata series. She also performed with them at Bachfest 2024 in Leipzig, Germany. She will be the alto soloist for Emmanuel Music’s Christmas concert performance of BWV 47.
Clare has been an active chorus member of the prestigious Handel+Haydn Society in Boston since 2014, where she has performed large baroque and classical vocal works under conductors such as Harry Christophers, Masaaki Suzuki, Bernard Labadie, Jonathan Cohen, Harry Bicket, Rinaldo Allessandrini, Jamie Barton, and Vaclav Luks.
Also a core member of the three-time GRAMMY-nominated Skylark Vocal Ensemble since 2012, Clare has appeared with the ensemble in various performances and sings on eight of their albums. Highlights of her time with Skylark include traveling to London with Skylark to perform their GRAMMY-nominated “Seven Words from the Cross” at the 2018 Holy Week Festival hosted by the British ensemble Tenebrae; a 10-year performance history of Francis Poulenc’s notoriously difficult Figure Humaine (part of the new album, “Clear Voices in the Dark”); and manifold opportunities to perform a wide range of repertoire, from solo chant and art songs to Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and Joby Talbot’s “Path of Miracles.”
Clare was a core member of Lorelei Ensemble, the groundbreaking 9-voice women’s vocal ensemble, from 2011-2019, during which time she contributed to five of their recordings and premiered many new works for all-treble ensemble. Throughout the years, Clare’s solo turns with Lorelei have been called “gorgeous” (ArtsFuse) and “exquisite” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). 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).
Internationally, Clare has performed with Cut Circle, an American early music group dedicated to recapturing the gritty, intense experience of singing early music. Clare recently joined Cut Circle as part of the Utrecht Early Music concert series in Utrecht, Delft, Zwolle, Maastricht, and Amsterdam, and will also perform with the group in Berkeley and Stanford, CA in collaboration with San Francisco Early Music Society and Stanford Live in February 2019. Clare made her European debut with Cut Circle performing at the Musica Sacra Festival in Maastricht, Netherlands, and has also joined the group at the AMUZ/Laus Polyphoniae 2015 Festival-Conference in Antwerp, Belgium, and the Tage Alter Music Festival in Regensburg, Germany. Clare and her fellow musicians served as professional science guinea pigs at the Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt Germany, donning electro-encephalogram helmets designed to measure activity in the singer’s brain. Clare’s “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Pick).
Clare joined Staunton Music Festival’s summer festival for Mozart’s Requiem in summer 2018 and returned for the entirety of the 2019 and 2021 festival seasons. In addition, Clare maintains ensemble affiliations with the Boston Camerata, Blue Heron, The Thirteen, Nightengale, Tapestry, and other groups throughout the United States.
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 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).
Clare has degrees from Princeton University and The Longy School of Music. She currently resides in the Boston area, where, like Hildegard, she delights in gardening.
Praised for her “lushly evocative mezzo” and “attentive and precise” musicianship, Clare McNamara brings her signature vocal quality and sensitive interpretation to a wide variety of repertoire throughout the United States and abroad. The 2018 recipient of the prestigious St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award, Clare has performed at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall, among other world-renowned venues. Though particularly adept at early and new music, Clare’s unique instrument is suited to many kinds of repertoire and is only growing in versatility.
Clare 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; she returned later in the year as alto soloist in Bach’s Missa Brevis in G major. Boston Classical Review praised her “rich timbre and expressive phrasing,” calling her duet with soprano Sarah Yanovitch the “vocal highlight of the second half.” Clare also made her New York City solo debut as alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Daniel Hyde and the Choristers of New York’s St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue (2017). Clare performed the role of Brängane in the 2017 and 2018 revival performances of Boston Camerata’s medieval pastiche, “Tristan & Iseult.” Other soloist credits include the role of Mother in Stephen Paulus' modern church opera "The Three Hermits" (Harvard University Choir), and many turns as alto oratorio soloist with organizations such as Coro Allegro, The Boston Cecilia, and the Tufts University Choirs.
Since the pandemic, Clare has been developing and finessing her skills as an interpreter of Bach. She made her soloist debut with the Washington Bach Consort in the fall of 2021 in Bach’s Mass in A Major (BWV 234) as well as Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Nisi Dominus. As a newer member of Boston’s Emmanuel Music’s regular alto roster, she has had multiple turns as an alto soloist on their weekly Bach cantata series. She also performed with them at Bachfest 2024 in Leipzig, Germany. She will be the alto soloist for Emmanuel Music’s Christmas concert performance of BWV 47.
Clare has been an active chorus member of the prestigious Handel+Haydn Society in Boston since 2014, where she has performed large baroque and classical vocal works under conductors such as Harry Christophers, Masaaki Suzuki, Bernard Labadie, Jonathan Cohen, Harry Bicket, Rinaldo Allessandrini, Jamie Barton, and Vaclav Luks.
Also a core member of the three-time GRAMMY-nominated Skylark Vocal Ensemble since 2012, Clare has appeared with the ensemble in various performances and sings on eight of their albums. Highlights of her time with Skylark include traveling to London with Skylark to perform their GRAMMY-nominated “Seven Words from the Cross” at the 2018 Holy Week Festival hosted by the British ensemble Tenebrae; a 10-year performance history of Francis Poulenc’s notoriously difficult Figure Humaine (part of the new album, “Clear Voices in the Dark”); and manifold opportunities to perform a wide range of repertoire, from solo chant and art songs to Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and Joby Talbot’s “Path of Miracles.”
Clare was a core member of Lorelei Ensemble, the groundbreaking 9-voice women’s vocal ensemble, from 2011-2019, during which time she contributed to five of their recordings and premiered many new works for all-treble ensemble. Throughout the years, Clare’s solo turns with Lorelei have been called “gorgeous” (ArtsFuse) and “exquisite” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). 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).
Internationally, Clare has performed with Cut Circle, an American early music group dedicated to recapturing the gritty, intense experience of singing early music. Clare recently joined Cut Circle as part of the Utrecht Early Music concert series in Utrecht, Delft, Zwolle, Maastricht, and Amsterdam, and will also perform with the group in Berkeley and Stanford, CA in collaboration with San Francisco Early Music Society and Stanford Live in February 2019. Clare made her European debut with Cut Circle performing at the Musica Sacra Festival in Maastricht, Netherlands, and has also joined the group at the AMUZ/Laus Polyphoniae 2015 Festival-Conference in Antwerp, Belgium, and the Tage Alter Music Festival in Regensburg, Germany. Clare and her fellow musicians served as professional science guinea pigs at the Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt Germany, donning electro-encephalogram helmets designed to measure activity in the singer’s brain. Clare’s “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Pick).
Clare joined Staunton Music Festival’s summer festival for Mozart’s Requiem in summer 2018 and returned for the entirety of the 2019 and 2021 festival seasons. In addition, Clare maintains ensemble affiliations with the Boston Camerata, Blue Heron, The Thirteen, Nightengale, Tapestry, and other groups throughout the United States.
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 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).
Clare has degrees from Princeton University and The Longy School of Music. She currently resides in the Boston area, where, like Hildegard, she delights in gardening.
