Claire Forstman is a pianist and vocal coach currently based in Portland, Oregon, where she is in her second year as a member of the Resident Artist studio at Portland Opera. In the ’24-’25 season, she will be the principal pianist for the company’s production of Falstaff, play orchestral keyboards for Paul Moravec’s The Shining, and lead the studio’s scenes program and aria showcase as Music Director. Last season, she was principal pianist and orchestral keyboardist for Portland Opera’s Puccini: In Concert, offstage conductor for Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day, and second pianist for the cabaret concert Enchanted Woods and the company’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro. Claire’s 2024 summer season features work with the Oregon Bach Festival as a rehearsal pianist and continuo player; OrpheusPDX, playing continuo for Handel’s Acis, Galatea e Polifemo; Vashon Opera, as a repetiteur for Verdi’s Otello; and Renegade Opera, as Music Director for Orlofsky’s Party, a reimagining of Die Fledermaus. She is a sought-after local and regional pianist, serving last season as a repetiteur for Renegade Opera’s workshop of the revue-style American Patriots and Opera Bend’s production of La Traviata, as well as being a regular collaborator with the Portland Symphonic Chorus and an accompanist for Opera in the Park and Portland’s Opera on Tap. This fall, she will be the Music Director for David Conte’s The Gift of the Magi at Portland State University. Before moving to Portland, Claire held studio residencies at the Florentine Opera, Opera Steamboat, and Finger Lakes Opera, and additionally coached at Chicago Summer Opera, dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, and Sarah Lawrence College. Her past seasons of work have included Rigoletto (Florentine Opera), Massenet’s Cendrillon (Chicago Summer Opera), L’enfant et les sortilèges (Florentine), La bohème (Florentine), Gianni Schicchi (Opera Steamboat), Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up (Steamboat), the premiere of a new arrangement of Così fan tutte by composer Nicolas Benavides and librettist Kelly Rourke (Florentine), the premieres of Carla Lucero’s Juana (dell’Arte Opera Ensemble), Whitney George’s Julie (New Camerata Opera), Fizz & Ginger (The Curiosity Cabinet) and Princess Maleine (dell’Arte), Roméo et Juliette (Florentine), Agrippina (CSO), and Il barbiere di Siviglia (Florentine; Finger Lakes Opera), among others. In addition to vocal collaboration, Claire works as a dance accompanist for BodyVox dance company and the Oregon Ballet Theatre School, and worked previously for the Milwaukee Ballet School and Academy. She earned her M.M. in Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and a B.M. in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music.
