Claire Colombo

Claire Colombo (*1993) studied oboe with Diego Dini Ciacci at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where she completed her studies in 2015, at the Utrecht Conservatory with Ernest Rombout and at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität in Vienna, where she obtained a Master of Music cum laude in 2020. She later attended Christian Schmitt’s lessons in Accademia Musicale Chigiana.
 

Selected as part of the Ulysses ensemble in 2019 and in 2021, Claire performed at the Aldeburgh Festival in Snape Maltings conducted by Geoffrey Paterson, ManiFeste in Paris conducted by Matthias Pintscher and Pierre Bleuse, Royaumont Festival conducted by Jean-Philippe Wurtz, and Mixtur Festival in Barcelona conducted by Beat Furrer. Selected by Ensemble Modern as part of IEMA in 2020/2021, she worked closely with Christian Hommel, as well as Michael Wendeberg, Sylvain Cambreling, Vimbayi Kaziboni, Stefan Asbury, Jonathan Stockhammer, Kunsu Shim and Gerhard Stäbler. Claire played with Ensemble Modern, conducted by Dirk Kaftan in the Happy New Ears concert series, and with IEMA at Naxoshalle, Kunstkulturkirche and HfMDK in Frankfurt as well as the Goethe Institut in Sofia for the 1800 Festival. She collaborated with Opificio Sonoro for the Festival Orizzonti in 2022, recording a monographic album of Salvatore Sciarrino conducted by Marco Momi as part of the project Sciarrino 75 for Brilliant Classics. She collaborated with Klangforum Wien in 2023 recording a monographic album of Lucia Dlugoszewski’s music in Synchron Stage conducted by Ilan Volkov, performing at the Konzerthaus in Vienna in the Zyklus concert series and in Bludenz for the Bludenz New Music Festival. 

Claire is also a founding member of the wind quintet Wiener Me’Lausch, with whom she won several competitions, including the Fidelio Wettbewerb and the Concorso città di Palmanova, performing at the Musikverein and at the Arnold Schoenberg Foundation. She played as a soloist at the Konzerthaus in Vienna for Wien Modern Festival and at the MuseumsQuartier for Tonspur Festival, as well as Romanfabrik in Frankfurt, Museo del Risorgimento in Milan and Palais Meran in Graz, premiering works by Sinan Samanlı and Mauro Saleri. She collaborated with various orchestras in Italy and Austria, including La Verdi, Pomeriggi Musicali, Filarmonica di Milano, Music Academy International of New York, Orchestra Scarlatti Young and Wiener Jeunesse Orchester, performing in venues such as Auditorium in Milan, Teatro Grande in Brescia, Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, Brücknerhaus in Linz, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Reduta Concert Hall in Bratislava, Ateneul Român in Bucharest, Royal Opera House in Muscat, Palais Sheremetev and Philarmonia in St. Petersburg and Gnesin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. She collaborated with Synchron Stage Orchestra in 2020 to record Alfonso González Aguilar’s music for the animation film Klaus, which was nominated for an Oscar.
 

Passionate about contemporary music, Claire has collaborated with several composers, including Johannes Maria Staud, Michael Beil, Alex Nante, Caterina di Cecca, Andreas Frank, Friedrich Cehra, Justė Janulytė, Peter Rundel, Stefano Gervasoni, Colin Matthews, Beat Furrer, Jörg Peter Mittmann and Philippe Hurel.