May Claire
Instruments: Voice, Piano, Harp, Early Childhood Music
Bio: May Claire grew up surrounded by music, and was inspired by her mom's career as the harpist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At the age of 4, May Claire started choir and piano lessons, and since then her passion for music has grown and expanded to encompass teaching, solo and ensemble singing, harp playing, conducting, and composing, all spanning a wide range of musical genres.
May Claire has been studying classical voice since she was ten years old. She has studied with world-renowned singers and teachers including Dame Emma Kirkby and Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas. She has also trained extensively in jazz voice, and has also studied various world folk musics, including Bulgarian and Irish.
May Claire received a BA in Ethnomusicology with a specialization in World Music and a minor in Music Industry from UCLA, and then a Master's in Vocal Performance from Oxford University, where she also sang as a choral scholar in the Choir of the Queen's College, Oxford.
May Claire has a passion for creating an environment in which musicians feel and achieve their best, which has been manifest in her many teaching and conducting exploits. May Claire founded the Game Music Ensemble at UCLA, a student group which performs live arrangements of video game music, and both conducted the choir and performed with the group. She has conducted and sung in Los Angeles Choral Collective C3LA as well. May Claire has been teaching both group and private voice, piano, and harp lessons for over a decade, and loves inspiring a love of music in students of all ages and interests.
Other highlights of May Claire's career have been singing on multiple video game soundtracks, as well as being chosen as a Sahm Apprentice Foundation Singer for the Verdi Chorus. She has sung with the Long Beach Camerata Singers, Jouyssance Early Music Ensemble, Selah Gospel Choir, and the Candlelight Carolers.
She is currently the soprano section leader for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Monica and is on the faculty at the California College of Music in Pasadena. When May Claire is not music-making, you can find her painting or spending time with her three dogs.