Claire Claire Booth Booth

Background

Prior to music, my background was in History, with an MA from Trinity College, Oxford. I gained an MMus from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as I embarked on a performance career as a soprano, with further studies at the National Opera Studio; and since that time have enjoyed a varied career working at the highest international level in performance, project ideation and commissioning - recognised by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2025 as recipient of their Singers Award. Concurrently, I gained a Masters in Cultural Policy and Arts Management at KCL, as part of efforts to broaden both my understanding of and contribution to the creative sector in general, focussing on the efficacy of opera in English translation, festival structures and children’s relationship with culture. I presented my research findings to ROH, Glyndebourne, SO, WNO and ENO; taking part in structural discussions with ENO to consider their future, post the Arts Council funding decisions of 2022.

Research

My research project at Merton, considers the Contemporary Opera field. A dual proposal; it is a collaboration between the BCSSO and Schotts Music to produced a compilation recording of modern opera arias by British composers from Harrison Birtwistle to Judith Weir, to be released in conjunction with a sector first song book publication providing unique, easy access to this repertoire for study, audition and performance. Not least through my own experience of coaching singers at conservatoires and ROH, there is strong evidence that young singers to not have access to or knowledge of the extensive modern operative canon that exists in the UK, are not encouraged to learn this repertoire as an integral part of their studies and that arguably many teachers do not have the skills or experience to help them. For the health of the sector at large it is vital for singers to feel confident and committed to music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and I’m delighted to work with students at Merton to gain insight into how to integrate this repertoire into pre-conservatoire studies.