Claire Lees is the winner of the 2019 Wil Keune Mozart Prize at the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition. She recently performed Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Holland Park where she has previously made her début in the role of Oscar in the Young Artists’ performance of Un ballo in maschera. She is a Samling Artist and a recipient of an Independent Opera Voice Scholarship and Fellowship.
On graduating from the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) Claire joined the Glyndebourne Festival Opera where she covered the role of Yniold in Debussy Pelleas et Melisande, and performed in the chorus for Guilio Cesare and Saul, and in the new production of Barber Vanessa. She later joined Glyndebourne Festival Opera for their 50th anniversary tour.
Claire’s operatic repertoire includes Venus Venus and Adonis (Blackheath Halls Opera); Lauretta Gianni Schicchi, Sœur Constance Dialogues des Carmélites and Foreign Woman The Consul (Guildhall School of Music and Drama); Pamina The Magic Flute and Adina L’elisir d’amore (Iford Arts); Papagena Die Zauberflöte and Drusilla L’incoronazione di Poppea (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire).
Claire has performed concerts in several major venues including the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Hall, St James’ Piccadilly, St Martin-in-the-Fields and Peterborough Cathedral. She has worked with Iain Burnside on his Drums and Guns project in collaboration with the Juilliard School and Royal Irish Academy of Music, performing in Dublin, London and New York.
Forthcoming engagements include Cendrillion in Viardot’s Cendrillion for VIARDOT200 and she will début at Garsington Festival in 2022 to sing La Musica Monteverdi Orfeo.