CLARA BELLEGARDE, harp

Clara Bellegarde was born in1992 in Lille, France to a father who is a harmony teacher and conductor, and a mother who is a pianist. Clara began learning the harp at age four. She studied in her home town with Anne Le Roy. She then joined the harp class of Isabelle Moretti at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique of Paris, where she graduated with honors in 2014. She went on to take part in a master program with Françoise Friedrich at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst of Frankfurt-am-Main.

In 2015 she was appointed first solo harpist of the Hamburg State Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra under the musical direction of Maestro Kent Nagano. She has collaborated closely with him on prestigious artistic projects such as the opening of the Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall in Hamburg, performing in a world premiere of Jörg Widmann and a world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s Opera, Stilles Meer.

Clara is regularly called on to play with reknown orchestras such as the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden Orchestra and the Frankfurt State Opera, and has had the opportunity to work under leading conductors, including Philippe Jordan, Paavo Järvi, Andrew Litton, and Lawrence Foster. Her collaborations with prestigious artists such as Emily Magee, Christiane Karg, Angela Gheorghiu, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gautier Capuçon and Hélène Grimaud have taken her to the biggest international concert halls such as the London Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), the Salzburg Festspielhaus (Salzburger Festspiele), the Wiener Musikverein, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Buenos Aires Teatro Colon and the Sala Sao Paulo.

Her particular attachment to chamber music, which she enjoys in many forms, the wise advice of prestigious musicians such as Philippe Bernold, Michel Moragues and Jens McManama, as well as her brilliant skills in musical harmony make Clara Bellegarde a complete musician.