Clara Mouriz
Spanish-born Clara Mouriz (mezzo-soprano) graduated from the Escuela Superior de Canto in Madrid in 2002, where she studied with Josefina Arregui, achieving the End of Studies Extraordinary Prize. In the same year she won an entrance scholarship to study with Noelle Barker at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She graduated from the Royal Academy Opera in 2005 with Distinction and the prestigious Outstanding Diploma of RAM. She was presented with the Vice-Principal's Award in recognition of her successes and during her studentship she won the celebrated Richard Lewis Award. She attended Maestro Zedda's Accademia Rossiniana Pesaro 2004, with support from Peter Moores and the Sir Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto in 2005.
Clara began her operatic career with the role of La Niña Blanca in the prèmiere of Anton Garcia Abril's Divinas Palabras at the Teatro Real, Madrid conducted by Rós-Marba, appearing in the cast alongside Placido Domingo. She has sung Olga in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin for British Youth Opera, La Marquesa Melibea in Viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, and, at the Spanish Mozart Festival, she has appeared in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea.
Recently Clara has appeared in concert singing Falla's El Amor Brujo conducted by Thierry Fisher, and Haydn and Vivaldi in the Gilder Lehrman Hall of the Morgan Library, New York. She has also appeared at the Spitalfields Festival, Cadogan Hall, and Bolivar Hall.
She has recorded Turina's Poema en Forma de Canciones for the Royal Academy of Music and led workshops in Latin and Spanish repertoire for the Wigmore Hall's Education Department. A committed recital singer, Clara has appeared at venues including the Cheltenham International Festival and London Musici Nights as well as Juventudes Musicales, Amigos de la Opera and Quincena Musical in Spain. She was a winner of the Friends of the RAM Wigmore Award 2006 and in 2007 she will return to the Wigmore Hall for a recital with Joseph Middleton presented by the Kirckman Concert Society.