Hi, I’m Claire

I grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota in a musical family, where my creativity was super supported by my parents, who are performers and teachers themselves. I trained classically in voice, violin, and acting from a very young age and into adulthood. This kind of study gave me so much. It meant that when I listened to new music I understood how it worked, could take it apart and put it back together to make my own work. It made it possible for me to teach myself guitar, ukulele, and keys. It gave me the the ability to use my voice in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible until someone taught me how. Unfortunately, it also came at a cost. This kind of formal study involved a lot of muscling through pain—emotional and physical.

When my body shut down during my best and biggest job, on the National Tour of Once The Musical, I had to radically change my relationship to playing music. I moved back to NYC and planted my roots as I embarked on a year’s long journey of going to therapists and doctors, learning new disciplines, modalities, and guiding principles I brought into my own practice.

Along the way, I was able to get quiet enough to learn which parts of playing music were rooted in obligation and struggle, and which were rooted in nurturance, creativity, and joy. I realized I had so many clues to what was healthy all along, but my intuition, sensitivity, and permission to listen to my body had been devalued and needed to be re-discovered.

Today, I bring these discoveries and skills to performing, teaching, and collaborating. I know it is possible to make music without pain - or at least with a lot less of it. I believe we can do it with love, joy and abundance, while listening to and trusting ourselves. I continue to cultivate a relationship to music as a lifelong support—for my students, audience members, and collaborators.