Claire Howard Race

Claire Howard Race obtained her Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours in Piano Performance and the University Medal from Newcastle Conservatorium, NSW. She continued her postgraduate piano accompaniment studies at the Canberra School of Music and then at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow with John Thwaites, where she was awarded the Broadwood Junior Piano Accompanist Fellowship. She subsequently earned a Master of Music in Performance and Research with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she studied with Malcolm Martineau and Iain Ledingham. 

She has performed to acclaim in song recitals with artists such as Deborah Humble, Mariana (Hye Seoung) Kwon and Ghillian Sullivan. From 2017 to 2021 she held the position of Assistant Chorus Master and Principal Rehearsal Pianist for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, and in 2021 performed in the two pianos and percussion version of Carmina Burana. Performances in 2022 have included Ola Gjeilo’s Luminous Night of the Soul for the Sydney Festival, and the four- hand piano arrangement of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem at Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle. She recently performed in the Sydney premiere of Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil at Sydney Opera House, together with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, cellist Julian Smiles, and conducted by the composer.

Claire started teaching piano in 2001 and since then, she has enjoyed teaching a diverse range of ages and abilities, from beginner to advanced. Claire has taught both classical and contemporary piano repertoire in several independent schools in England and Australia, where her students attained distinctive results.