Artists

Biography:

Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, who sings “from inside the music with unaffected purity and sincerity” (UK Telegraph), is an active soloist and chamber musician hailed for her “rich and radiant voice” (UrbanDial Milwaukee).

In international competition with pianist Tyler Wottrich, in March of 2017, Clara became the first ever American prize winner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff’s International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg, Germany. Later that year, the duo was also one of four to reach the finals in the very prestigious Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Song Competition in London, and Clara was awarded the Richard Tauber Prize for the best interpretation of Schubert Lieder. She recently won the Radio-Canada People’s Choice Award, third place in the song division at the 2018 Concours Musical International de Montréal, and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society Prize for best interpretation of British Song at the 2019 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Song Competition.

Performance highlights include concerts with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Handel and Haydn Society, The Schubert Club, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, her debut with Minnesota Opera as Mrs. Herring in Britten’s Albert Herring and Wigmore Hall Recital debut with Julius Drake. She has collaborated with many chamber musicians, including pianist Wu Han, The Lydian String Quartet, VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Salastina, Accordo, and Dark Horse Consort.

In addition to performing, Clara serves as the Artistic Director of Source Song Festival, a week-long art song festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This festival strives to create and perform new art song and cultivate an educational environment for students of song, including composers, vocalists, and collaborative pianists. She received her B.Mus. from North Dakota State University with Dr. Bob Jones, M.A. from the University of Iowa with Stephen Swanson, and continued study with Emma Small.