Clare Lillig
Soprano
Dancer
Actor
Teacher
Dancer
Actor
Teacher
Artist Bio
A Chicago native, Clare recalls always loving the arts. Since birth, her parents exposed her to performing and visual arts. She started her performance training in ballet at age three and grew to love dance. As she grew older, she grew fond of singing as well and continues to have a love and passion for both art forms to this day.
Clare's favorite past operatic roles include, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and Arminda cover (La Finta Giardiniera) with Maryland Opera Studio, Juliska (The Csardas Princess) at Chicago Folks Operetta, and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) and Monica (The Medium) both at Anderson University. She has also worked with new composers and has had music and roles composed for her. Most recently, the role of Stacey in the premiere of the opera Sunder by Nailah Nombeko and Alicia Heymer.
Along with her operatic performance, Clare has had the opportunity to work with stellar choral ensembles as well as both a chorus member and a soloist. Currently, she is working as the staff soprano in the quartet at Saint Mary Mother of God church in Washington D.C. where she primarily sings Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant. Her past performances include being a Chorus member at Indianapolis Opera in their Chorus in Concert, as well as soprano soloist in the Vivaldi Gloria and Mozart's Regina Coeli at Saints Peter and Paul Church in Chicago, the soprano soloist in the Rutter Requiem with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra, and many other ensembles.
Internationally, Clare traversed to Germany where she studied and performed multiple opera roles while learning the German language, taking voice lessons and coachings with the young artist program MusikTheater Bavaria. She also sang as a soloist singing works by R. Strauss in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland with the Anderson University Chorale and toured to Rome to sing at the Vatican and other Italian cities with the Saints Peter and Paul choral scholars.
An accomplished singer, Clare is an equally accomplished dancer and has choreographed for many musicals as well as large dance works and has worked as a dance teacher in the Chicago area and Washington D.C. area for many years. She has also performed as a dancer in numerous dance performances in Chicago, Indianapolis, London, and Germany. Some of her favorites include, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, and multiple works in Anderson University’s Fall Into Dance and Spring Into Dance performances.
Clare holds a Masters of Music in Opera Performance from the prestigious Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland. There she studied with Prof. Jennifer Casey-Cabot and coach Justina Lee. She also holds a Bachelors of Music in vocal performance and a Bachelor of Arts in dance from Anderson University. There she was the winner of the Concerto and Aria competition and received the honor of excellence in music performance. She also was a recipient of multiple talent and academic scholarships.