Biography

​

Clara Barbier Serrano began her musical training at an early age, studying the violin while singing in the choir of the Montpellier Conservatoire (CRR). She went on to study voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Leipzig in the class of Carola Guber, before joining the Opera Studio at the Royal College of Music in London, where she studied with Alison Wells. A member of the Académie Jaroussky in 2022, she subsequently completed a diploma in contemporary creation at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), before joining the sixth generation of Opera Fuoco’s young artist programme.

A prizewinner at numerous international competitions, she has received the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation Prize and the Maestranza Prize at the ASAO Nuevas Voces Competition in Seville, the Jean Meikle Prize at the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Second Prize at the 2024 International Hugo Wolf Competition, and, in 2025, Second Prize, the Audience Prize and the Belle Saison Prize at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition. She has also taken part in numerous masterclasses with artists including Regina Werner-Dietrich, Roger Vignoles and Bernarda Fink.

On the operatic stage, her roles include the title role in Rodelinda, Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte), Taumännchen (Hänsel und Gretel) and Controller (Flight by Jonathan Dove) at the Royal College of Music in London; Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte) with Oxford Opera Company; and Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) in Neuchâtel.

With a particular affinity for Lied and French mélodie, she was selected as an Oxford Lieder Young Artist in 2023. Together with pianist Joanna Kacperek, she forms a regular duo and has appeared in recital at the Schumann-Haus in Leipzig, LIFE Victoria in Barcelona, the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Britten Pears Festival, the Aurora Festival, the Bloomsbury Festival and the London Song Festival, among others.

Her concert repertoire includes Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the Bloomsbury Festival, Martin Matalon’s Chaplin Factory at IRCAM, the Opéra de Massy and in Seoul, and Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre with Ensemble Écoute in Paris.

A scholarship recipient of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, she regularly performs on stage with Andrea Bocelli.

More recently, she has sung the title role in La Petite Sirène at the opera houses of Nice, Avignon, Marseille, Mougins, Toulon and Charleroi; La Marchande d’Oiseaux (Juliette ou la Clef des songes) at the Opéra de Nice; Elisabeth (Les Enfants Terribles by Philip Glass) at the La Opera Sevilla Festival; Amor (Apollo et Dafne) with Opera Fuoco in Touques; and Matteo Franceschini’s Decameron at the Opéra Grand Avignon and the Théâtre de l’Athénée in Paris.