Biography
Award-winning Welsh soprano, Claire Watkins, is a former Head Chorister of St. David’s Cathedral Choir in Pembrokeshire, and graduated in 2007 with a DipRam from the Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music studying with Beatrice Unsworth and Audrey Hyland. Claire also has a BMus (Hons) from Cardiff University, and a PGDip (Distinction in performance) from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Throughout her studies Claire was generously supported by the Musicans Benevolent Fund, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Kohn Foundation.
In 2007, she participated in the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto in Tuscany, studying with Leo Nucci and in 2009 become a Samling Scholar, where she studied and performed with her current teacher, world renowned Australian soprano Yvonne Kenny, as well as Sir Thomas Allen and Malcolm Martineau.
Operatic roles performed include Leïla The Pearl Fishers for English National Opera, Amelia Simon Boccanegra for Opera Project Valladolid, Constance in The Sorcerer for Opera della Luna, Donna Anna Don Giovanni for the Amersham Music Festival, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi, Venus Dardanus, Almirena Rinaldo, Arminda La Finta Giardiniera, Manon Manon Lescaut and Yvette La Rondine all for RAO, Miss Wordsworth Albert Herring and the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen for RWCMD and creating the role of Elizabeth Barry in the world première of Rochester’s Second Bottle with RWCMD and Music Theatre Wales. Claire also participated in the workshop of Chair in Love in Montreal, composed by John Metcalf, with the Chair in Love Collective in Montreal, Canada.
Recently, Claire has also covered several roles including the title role in Massenet's Manon and Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore both for Scottish Opera, Bronwyn Jones in Carbon 12 for Welsh National Opera, Gretchen The Poacher and Alison The Wandering Scholar for Buxton Festival Opera, Queen of the Night The Magic Flute for British Youth Opera.
Equally at home on the concert platform her oratorio experience includes the B Minor Mass with Trevor Pinnock, Mozart Requiem at St. Martin-in-the-fields, Beethoven Mass in C with Brian Kay, Monteclair’s soprano cantata Pan et Syrinx with Laurence Cummings and The English Concert at Handel House and performing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Claire returns to Scottish Opera in the autumn of 2010 to perform the role of Micäela in Carmen.
Throughout her studies Claire was generously supported by the Musicans Benevolent Fund, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Kohn Foundation.
In 2007, she participated in the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto in Tuscany, studying with Leo Nucci and in 2009 become a Samling Scholar, where she studied and performed with her current teacher, world renowned Australian soprano Yvonne Kenny, as well as Sir Thomas Allen and Malcolm Martineau.
Operatic roles performed include Leïla The Pearl Fishers for English National Opera, Amelia Simon Boccanegra for Opera Project Valladolid, Constance in The Sorcerer for Opera della Luna, Donna Anna Don Giovanni for the Amersham Music Festival, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi, Venus Dardanus, Almirena Rinaldo, Arminda La Finta Giardiniera, Manon Manon Lescaut and Yvette La Rondine all for RAO, Miss Wordsworth Albert Herring and the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen for RWCMD and creating the role of Elizabeth Barry in the world première of Rochester’s Second Bottle with RWCMD and Music Theatre Wales. Claire also participated in the workshop of Chair in Love in Montreal, composed by John Metcalf, with the Chair in Love Collective in Montreal, Canada.
Recently, Claire has also covered several roles including the title role in Massenet's Manon and Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore both for Scottish Opera, Bronwyn Jones in Carbon 12 for Welsh National Opera, Gretchen The Poacher and Alison The Wandering Scholar for Buxton Festival Opera, Queen of the Night The Magic Flute for British Youth Opera.
Equally at home on the concert platform her oratorio experience includes the B Minor Mass with Trevor Pinnock, Mozart Requiem at St. Martin-in-the-fields, Beethoven Mass in C with Brian Kay, Monteclair’s soprano cantata Pan et Syrinx with Laurence Cummings and The English Concert at Handel House and performing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Claire returns to Scottish Opera in the autumn of 2010 to perform the role of Micäela in Carmen.
