BIO
Soprano Claire Filer was born in Auckland, New Zealand…
Soprano Claire Filer was born in Auckland, New Zealand, where she began a career that has involved studying and performing in the US, the UK and Europe. Claire holds a Master of Arts with Distinction from the Wales International Academy of Voice in Cardiff, a Master of Music from The Boston Conservatory in the US and a Bachelor of Music with first class honours from The University of Auckland in New Zealand. While at the University of Auckland, Claire was awarded the Kathleen Mary Reardon Scholarship and Postgraduate Scholarship, and upon graduation from The Boston Conservatory, Claire accepted a place in the Gamma Psi chapter of the prestigious American music honours society Pi Kappa Lambda. Claire has also attended the Intermezzo Young Artist Program in Portland, Maine, the Franco-American Vocal Academy in Périgueux, France, and New Zealand Opera School in Wanganui, New Zealand.
A mezzo-soprano until summer 2019, Claire’s operatic engagements have included the roles of Dido Dido & Aeneas (Armonico Consort, Kentish Opera, West Sussex Opera, The Boston Conservatory), Carmen (cover) Carmen (Kentish Opera), Dorabella Così fan tutte (Birgitta Festival – Tallinn, Estonia; The Black Cat Opera Company, West Sussex Opera), 2nd Witch Macbeth (Iford Arts), Angelina La Cenerentola (Woodhouse Opera Festival), Hansel Hansel & Gretel (Carshalton Opera), Lola Cavalleria Rusticana (Wedmore Opera, Woodhouse Opera Festival), Sorceress Dido & Aeneas (Opera at Chilmark, Richmond-upon-Thames Festival, Ursula’s Arrow), Maurya Riders to the Sea (Piccalilli Opera), Zweite Dame Die Zauberflöte (Woodhouse Opera Festival), Annina La Traviata (London Festival Opera), Suor Dolcina Suor Angelica (Talent Unlimited), 2nd Witch Dido & Aeneas (Opera Alumnus), Mother Hansel & Gretel (Opera Holloway), Cathleen Riders to the Sea (Cantata Singers), La Grande Duchesse La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein (Franco-American Vocal Academy), Florence Pike Albert Herring (Intermezzo Young Artist Program), Suzy La Rondine (The Boston Conservatory), Serse Serse (The Boston Conservatory), chorus in Káťa Kabanová (Opera Holland Park) and La Traviata (West Green House Opera), and a gala performance at the first Opera Sark Festival. Claire has also been involved in productions of two contemporary operas with Gestalt Arts – Cameron Dodd’s Unsung Heroes of the Planet and Sarah Dacey’s Liquid History, performed at the Green Man Festival and the Totally Thames Festival respectively, both of which have been revived in 2018 at The Eden Project and The National Maritime Museum.
Oratorio and concert engagements include Handel Messiah (Collegium Musicum Costa del Sol, Wetherby Choral Society, The Maidstone Singers and The South Circular Orchestra, Nidderdale Messiah), Cecilia McDowall Magnificat (Enfield Choral Society), Jenkins The Armed Man (Wetherby Choral Society), Mozart Requiem (Grimsby Philharmonic Society, Bridgend Tabernacl Choir, Dunottar Choral Society, Wombourne & District Choral Society, St Giles in the Fields) and Coronation Mass (Wadhurst Polyphony, Genesis Chorale), Pergolesi Stabat Mater (St Giles in the Fields), Beethoven 9 (Concert for Europe), Bach St John Passion (Wetherby Choral Society), Saint-Saëns Messe de Requiem (Eastwood Chorale), Dvořák Stabat Mater (Wombourne & District Choral Society) and Mass in D (Reigate & Redhill Choral Society), Bach Magnificat (Village Voices), Schumann Requiem (Genesis Chorale), Duruflé Requiem (Grange Choral Society, Genesis Chorale), Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle (Aberystwyth Choral Society, Genesis Chorale, Dunottar Choral Society); Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor (Wadhurst Polyphony, Cantata Singers); Gounod Messe Solennelle (Pakuranga Choral Society); Schubert Mass in C Major; Faure Requiem and Vivaldi Gloria (Auckland Youth Choir); Haydn Mass in Time of War (South Auckland Choral Society), Lord Nelson Mass (Masterworks Chorale), Missa Cellensis in Honorem (Collegium Musicum Costa del Sol) and Missa Sancti Nicolai (Blackheath Centre for Singing); Handel Jephtha (The Handel Consort and Quire); Orff Carmina Burana (Sing Waiheke); and Irving Fine The Choral New Yorker (Cantata Singers). In the US, Claire performed with a range of organisations such as Boston New Music Initiative, Metrowest Symphony Orchestra, New England Light Opera, Masterworks Chorale, and Cantata Singers, and was selected to perform the role of Bobachino in an excerpt from Musto The Inspector at the 2011 Opera America conference. Claire has also performed selections from Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne with Croydon Symphony Orchestra at Fairfield Halls and then with Guildford Symphony Orchestra at G Live.
In 2023, Claire performed the role of Mimì in Act I of Puccini’s La Bohème in concert with Richmond Orchestra, along with excerpts from Bizet’s Carmen and Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel, and as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra for their 60th Anniversary Concert at Greyfriars Kirk. She then covered the role of Charlotte in Lisa Logan’s Bronte the Opera at the Grimeborn Opera Festival, and made her debut as Ortlinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre with The London Opera Company at St John’s Smith Square.
Upcoming performances include the 2nd soprano soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with Durham Choral Society in Durham Cathedral.