…Claire Pegram is a versatile artist and performer with a commitment to expressive story-telling.
In May 2024, Pegram made her Los Angeles Opera debut as First Handmaiden in the company's May/June production of Puccini's Turandot. Pegram also sings regularly with the Los Angeles Opera Chorus and was most recently seen in the November 2024 production of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. Pegram will finish the 2024-2025 season with LA Opera as a featured dancer and chorister in Ainadamar.
Ms. Pegram is recognized as a rising talent on opera and concert stages, alike. Most recently, Pegram made her Pacific Opera Project debut in July 2024 as the Foreign Princess in Rusalka at the Descanso Gardens:
"...the beautiful Claire Pegram who offers a strong voice and vixen-ish characterization for the witchy princess, Esmerelda (Pegram was a featured soloist in LA Opera’s Turandot this year).." -Michael M. Landman-Karny, Theater-Los Angeles
Prior, in October 2023, Pegram debuted with Mission Opera in Santa Clarita as Madame Roland in the West Coast Premiere of Girondines, a new work in English. Pegram will also make another local debut with Guild Opera in March 2025 for an evening of operatic arias and art songs.
Ms. Pegram also sings with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and will next join the Chorale and the LA Philharmonic for upcoming performances of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with Zubin Mehta. Other recent engagements with the Chorale include Esa-Pekka Salonen's Karawane, Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé, and the beloved Festival of Carols concert. Pegram’s other recent Walt Disney Concert Hall engagements with the LA Master Chorale include Heaven + Earth: The Music of Reena Esmail and Philip Glass (October 2023), Mahler 3 with Zubin Mehta and the LA Philharmonic (Mar. ’23), Rachmaninoff’s The Bells (Feb. ’23), Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor with Gustavo Dudamel, The Weimar Republic with Esa-Pekka Salonen, the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz's Yanga, and Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl.
In September 2023, Pegram was a selected participant for a masterclass with star-baritone Lucas Meachem, sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Los Angeles chapter (NATS-LA) and the Opera Buffs, INC. In April 2022, Ms. Pegram was named the First Place winner of the Gwendolyn Roberts Young Artist Competition and gave a recital in October 2022 as the NATS-LA "Young Artist of the Year”. Pegram solos regularly with the Sierra Linda Master Chorale, First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, and the Vallejo Drive Church in Glendale, CA.
On the opera stage, Pegram was scheduled to cover First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Aspen Opera Theater in 2020 (cancelled due to COVID-19). Other recent opera engagements include Pegram as the title role in the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute’s 2019 production of Rodelinda by G.F. Handel:
“Pegram spun out long lines, revealing a strong, passionate, and distinctive presence...One show-stopping scene was the heart-rending duet between him [Taylor Boone] and his Queen (Pegram). This farewell duet intertwines the two singers' gorgeous voices.” -Timothy Lindeman, CVNC 2019, Rodelinda.
Ms. Pegram's roles with the Fletcher Opera Institute include Sophie in Massenet’s Werther (2019), the Governess in The Turn of the Screw (2018), Mélisande in Impressiones de Pelléas (2018), Tisbe in La Cenerentola (2018), and Trio Girl in Trouble in Tahiti (2017).
In the summer of 2017, Ms. Pegram made her debut with Opera in the Ozarks in Eureka Springs, Arkansas where she sang the title role in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, one of her most-beloved roles. Other 2017 performances included Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Nannetta (Falstaff) with Opera MODO in Detroit, Michigan.
Claire Pegram received a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute in North Carolina in 2019. She received a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan in 2016.
Ms. Pegram currently lives in Los Angeles and teaches privately.