CLAIRE RUTTER
Claire Rutter was born in South Shields, County Durham, and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Laura Sarti and at the National Opera Studio sponsored by The Friends of ENO. She has won numerous awards including the John Scott Award, the Wolfson Singing Prize, and in 1993 she was selected by the Young Concert Artists' Trust (YCAT) and as a recommended artist by the National Federation of Music Societies.
Her operatic work has included an extremely highly acclaimed Violetta in La Traviata and Gilda in Rigoletto for Scottish Opera, Butterfly in Madame Butterfly for the RLPO, Elettra in Idomeneo , The Countess in The Marriage of Figaro and Terinka in The Jacobin for Scottish Opera, Violetta in La Traviata for Welsh National Opera, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni for British Youth Opera, Mimi in La Bohème for Opera Nova and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin for Nonesuch Opera.
An accomplished oratorio and concert soloist, Claire made her Wigmore Hall début in November 1994. Her recent work has included a live broadcast of an Opera Gala from the Royal Festival Hall, London, televised performances of A Sea Symphony and A Child of Our Time with the National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa, a broadcast of Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Mozart's Mass in C Minor at St. John's Smith Square, Strauss's Four Last Songs and Carmina Burana at the QEH, Verdi's Requiem at Edinburgh's Usher Hall, Messiah and Mozart's Requiem at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Elgar's The Apostles and The Kingdom , and Brahms' Requiem . She has also given many Opera & Viennese Gala concerts, most recently with Dennis O'Neill at London's Barbican Hall and Birmingham's Symphony Hall, and a New Year's Day concert with Carl Davis at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.
Engagements in the 1997/98 season have included Fiordiligi and Violetta for Scottish Opera, and the title role in Giovanna d'Arco in Ludwigshafen. She recently scored a great personal success when she replaced Dame Margaret Price in a performance of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs at the Barbican. In 1999 she made her debut as Violetta for English National Opera and will return there as Gilda which she will also sing for Welsh National Opera.
Claire has recorded excerpts from La Bohème and Madame Butterfly with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and her husband, baritone Stephen Gadd. Her future plans include singing Fiordiligi in Così fan Tutte for Scottish Opera, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni for San Francisco Opera.
