BIOGRAPHY

Claire Marguerite Iverson is a classically trained and versatile soprano currently based in Washington, D.C. She received her Master of Music in Opera Performance at the Maryland Opera Studio (2024) and her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the Peabody Conservatory. Performances for the 2024 season include excerpts of Fiordiligi and Countess in concert at the National Gallery and role debuts as Florencia Grimaldi (Florencia en el Amazonas) with the Maryland Opera Studio, Ada Monroe (Cold Mountain) with the Seagle Festival, Angelina (Trial by Jury) with The Young Victorian Theatre Company, and The Reporter (Notes on Viardot) with Music On Site, Inc. Claire also covers Johanna (Sweeney Todd) while at the Seagle Festival.

In 2023, Claire gave role debuts as Lady Billows (Albert Herring), Tessa (The Gondoliers), and covered Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni). She sang partial roles as Blanche de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites), Romilda (Xerxes), and Frau Fluth (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor). Recital engagements included performances of Dvořák’s Cigánské Melodie and Poulenc’s Banalités. 2023 also saw Claire returning to new music, with the workshop premier of Justine Chen and Jackie Goldfinger’s new opera TWA (Older Sister).

Previous seasons had Claire singing roles such as Zerlina (Don Giovanni), the Governess (Turn of the Screw), Jane Bennet (Kirke Mechem’s Pride and Prejudice, world staged premiere), and Suor Genovieffa (Suor Angelica). In 2020, Ms. Iverson had the opportunity to collaborate with Now Hear This! in their production of Kaija Saariaho’s 2010 opera Émilie. Originally written as a monodrama for soprano, this production was the first to experiment with multiple singers portraying the title role. Claire sang the sixth movement, Feu, and covered the fourth, Rayons. Through the production process, Claire coached with both Elizabeth Futral (U.S. premiere, Émilie) and Karita Mattila (world premiere, Émilie).

Claire is equally comfortable in musical theatre repertoire and performance. Some of her favorite musical theatre credits include Juan Perón’s Mistress and Eva u/s (Evita), Rapunzel (Into the Woods), Sandy (Grease), Cosette (Les Misérables), and Mrs. Banks (Mary Poppins). Her straight theatre credits include June Stanley (The Man Who Came To Dinner) and Evil Tina (She Kills Monsters). Claire studied classical ballet for several years and has performed as a featured dancer in productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Little Mermaid, and Mary Poppins, among others.

In addition to her BM, Ms. Claire received her Bachelor of Arts from the Johns Hopkins University. She double majored in International Studies and French, with a third focus area of Italian Language and Cultural Studies, for which she was awarded the United States Department of Education Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship in the spring of 2019. She was selected as one of only nine undergraduate students to pursue additional, graduate-level coursework with the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna campus, in the summer of 2018. Claire spent the Fall 2018 semester abroad in Milan, Italy, through IES Abroad Milan’s Music: Tradition and Innovation program. There, she studied with Italian soprano Patrizia Zanardi and coaches Anna Fre and Stefano Simone Pintor, and performed recitals in locations such as the Giuseppe Verdi Casa di riposo per musicisti. Claire is extremely passionate about foreign language and culture, and is a speaker of English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and beginner level Russian. Her vocal repertoire expands over 10 languages.

Claire is an alumna of the prestigious Baltimore School for the Arts, where she majored in vocal performance. While there, she studied under the tutelage of Janice Chandler-Eteme and Robert Cantrell.