Biography

A native of Dallas, Texas, Laura Claycomb began her career as an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera. She first captured international attention when, on short notice, she assumed the role of Giulietta in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Since that time she has performed more than seventy-five roles in works by composers from Monteverdi to Messiaen.

Highlights for Ms. Claycomb this season includes the roles of Ophelia in Thomas’s Hamlet with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Bergen National Opera, and the Contessa in Salieri’s La scuola de’gelosi with the Orchestra l’Arte del Mondo. The 2014-15 season saw her bow as Amina in La Sonnambula at the Bolshoi Theater, the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor with New Orleans Opera, and Cunegonde in Candide with the Maggio Musicale in Florence. She also appeared in concert with the Oregon Symphony for Carmina burana, Mercury Baroque in a performance with David Daniels, and L’Orchestra Regionale Toscana for Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Ms. Claycomb can be heard on the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas’s recordings of Mahler’s Fourth and Eighth symphonies for SFS Media. She also recorded Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra for LSO Live, and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini with the London Symphony Orchestra and with Roger Norrington and the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra. Her other recordings include Handel's Arcadian Duets with Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée, Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the London Sinfonietta, and Carmina burana with the London Symphony Orchestra and Richard Hickox (Chandos). She can also be heard in live recordings of Ariadne auf Naxos from Glyndebourne, Alan Platel and Fabrizio Cassol’s Pitié with Cypres Records, and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress from Brussels. Her first solo CD, which features guitarist Marc Teicholz, will be released this month on Delos.

Ms. Claycomb earned the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Pegasus Prize at Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Operetta Prize at the Belvedere Competition in Vienna, and First Prize in the National Opera Association Competition in the US. She currently serves as consultant for the Bolshoi Young Artist Program, giving master classes there and at the Centre for Operatic Studies in Sulmona, Italy. Ms. Claycomb now resides with her husband in Italy. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 1990.

(November 2015)