Clara Warnaar is an American-Canadian percussionist, teacher and composer. Raised in a musical and French-speaking home in Los Angeles, Clara has performed in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Switzerland. An alumna of the Interlochen Arts Academy, where she won the concerto competition, Clara’s earlier training was in drumset, piano and dance.
Ms. Warnaar’s adaptable nature makes her a strong orchestral, contemporary, chamber and solo musician. Currently, she is a member of two NYC-based ensembles: Excelsis, a new all-female percussion ensemble and ensemble mise-en, a group dedicated to playing innovative and international repertoire. One of her most exciting recent experiences was premiering electronic artist Dan Deacon’s first all-acoustic piece at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Earlier that year, she had the chance to record for noted film composer Aaron Zigman’s demo reel.
As a soloist, Clara won the 2nd prize in percussion at the Montréal Symphony’s Standard Life Competition, both in 2009 and 2012. Through the competition, she received a scholarship to attend the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, where she performed John Adams’ ”The Wound Dresser” with the composer conducting, and participated in percussion guru Steve Schick’s program “Roots and Rhizomes”. The competition will also support her upcoming summer at Le Domaine Forget in Québec, where the new music program is led by Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Additionally, she has participated in the So Percussion Summer Institute, where she was a Pearl scholarship recipient, and the Music X Festival, coached by members of Eighth Blackbird. Her most recent success as a soloist was winning the Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition: she will perform Anders Koppel's marimba concerto with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra during the 2013-14 season.
Clara received her Bachelor's Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation scholarship recipient. Her teachers are Erik Charlston, Christopher Lamb, Duncan Patton and She-e Wu. Clara spent the fall of 2011 studying abroad at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she studied with percussionists from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Clara was recently welcomed into the company Associated Solo Artists as a new Teaching Artist. The company is devoted to bringing high-quality musical concerts and workshops to cultural-needy areas in the Adirondacks. In the summer of 2012, she became musician-in-residence at La Petite École, New York’s only francophone preschool, encouraging the curiosity of young children by exploring sound. To balance her musical life, Clara enjoys painting, cooking, and doing Bikram Yoga.
Ms. Warnaar’s adaptable nature makes her a strong orchestral, contemporary, chamber and solo musician. Currently, she is a member of two NYC-based ensembles: Excelsis, a new all-female percussion ensemble and ensemble mise-en, a group dedicated to playing innovative and international repertoire. One of her most exciting recent experiences was premiering electronic artist Dan Deacon’s first all-acoustic piece at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Earlier that year, she had the chance to record for noted film composer Aaron Zigman’s demo reel.
As a soloist, Clara won the 2nd prize in percussion at the Montréal Symphony’s Standard Life Competition, both in 2009 and 2012. Through the competition, she received a scholarship to attend the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, where she performed John Adams’ ”The Wound Dresser” with the composer conducting, and participated in percussion guru Steve Schick’s program “Roots and Rhizomes”. The competition will also support her upcoming summer at Le Domaine Forget in Québec, where the new music program is led by Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Additionally, she has participated in the So Percussion Summer Institute, where she was a Pearl scholarship recipient, and the Music X Festival, coached by members of Eighth Blackbird. Her most recent success as a soloist was winning the Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition: she will perform Anders Koppel's marimba concerto with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra during the 2013-14 season.
Clara received her Bachelor's Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation scholarship recipient. Her teachers are Erik Charlston, Christopher Lamb, Duncan Patton and She-e Wu. Clara spent the fall of 2011 studying abroad at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she studied with percussionists from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Clara was recently welcomed into the company Associated Solo Artists as a new Teaching Artist. The company is devoted to bringing high-quality musical concerts and workshops to cultural-needy areas in the Adirondacks. In the summer of 2012, she became musician-in-residence at La Petite École, New York’s only francophone preschool, encouraging the curiosity of young children by exploring sound. To balance her musical life, Clara enjoys painting, cooking, and doing Bikram Yoga.
