Native Texan Laura Claycomb excels in adventurous repertoire, ranging from baroque music over belcanto masterpieces to 20th century and contemporary compositions at the major opera and concert venues. Her delicacy, refinement and theatricality in high-flying repertoire make her one of America's foremost lyric coloraturas. She made her debut at La Scala in 1998 singing the title role in Donizetti's "Linda di Chamounix" and at the Salzburg Festival in 1997 as Amanda in Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre" with Esa-Pekka Salonen and Peter Sellars. She recorded "Le Grand Macabre" with Salonen on Sony, "Sir John in Love" of Vaughan-Williams with Richard Hickox on Chandos, "Benvenuto Cellini" with Sir Roger Norrington (Hanssler Classics) and with Sir Colin Davis (LSO Live), "Händel's Arcadian duets" with French baroque conductor Emmanuëlle Haim on EMI/Virgin, and many recordings on the Opera Rara label. Her recording of Mahler's Fourth Symphony with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson-Thomas was nominated for a Grammy.

Laura Claycomb burst onto the European stages as Giulietta in Bellini's "I Capuleti e I Montecchi" (Bruno Campanella/Robert Carsen) at the Grand Théâtre de Geneve in 1994. Subsequently she had overwhelming successes as Giulietta at the Paris Opera, at the Los Angeles Opera and at the Munich Radio Orchestra.

She sang Gilda in Verdi's "Rigoletto" to great acclaim in Houston, Toronto, Paris (Bastille), Lausanne, Tel Aviv, Santiago de Chile, Pittsburgh and Bilbao. She debuted the title role in Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the New Israeli Opera in a David Pountney production. Ms. Claycomb reprised the role in Seoul, Korea, and both at Houston Grand Opera and in concert in Moscow with Patrick Summers.

Her first Marie in Donizetti's "La fille du régiment" also took place under the baton of Patrick Summers at San Francisco Opera, in 1994. The next year, she performed Marie again at Turin's Teatro Regio with Bruno Campanella in a Luca Ronconi production. The soprano performed in an Emilio Sagi production inspired by Botero at Rome Opera in 1998. She performs a different Sagi production of the opera at Houston Grand Opera this season with Riccardo Frizza conducting.

Laura Claycomb has also portrayed a beautiful Cleopatra in Händel's "Giulio Cesare" at Houston Grand Opera with Patrick Summers in 2003, in Montpellier in 1999 with Christophe Rousset and with Roy Goodman at the Drottningholm Festival in 2001. Her Morgana in Händel's "Alcina" at English National Opera with Hickox and McVicar was an overwhelming success.

Zerbinetta in "Ariadne auf Naxos" has become a vehicle for her voice and acting talents after her groundbreaking debut at San Francisco Opera (Jun Maerkl/John Cox) and her appearance in concert at the Richard-Strauss-Festspiele (Ulf Schirmer). She reprised the role at Los Angeles Opera.

Also at Los Angeles Opera, Laura Claycomb originated the role of Queen Wealtheow in Elliot Goldenthal's "Grendel" in an acclaimed Julie Taymor production. The production was featured at the 2006 Lincoln Center Festival.

This season, the soprano added the role of Anne Trulove to her repertoire in the creation of Robert LePage's production of "The Rake's Progress;" she repeated the production in Opéra de Lyon. She will perform the role in Paris next year in a new Luc Bondy production.

Other significant opera roles include Ophelie in Thomas' "Hamlet" (Trieste's Teatro Verdi with Jean-Yves Ossonce/Nicholas Joel), Comtesse Adèle in Rossini's "Le comte Ory" (Lausanne with Evalino Pidò/Denis Kreif), Ilia in Mozart's "Idomeneo" (Houston Grand Opera), Ginevra in Händel's "Ariodante" (Paris Opera with Mark Minkowski and Munich Opera with Harry Bickett), Cunegonde in Bernstein's "Candide" (Opera Pacific with John Demain/Jeffrey Lenz), Sophie in "Der Rosenkavalier" (Spoleto Festival with Hickox/Keith Warner), Konstanze in Mozart's "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" (Staatsoper Berlin with Sebastian Weigle and Vlaamse Opera with Arnold Östman) and Olympia in "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" (Vlaamse Opera with Jean-Claude Casadesus/David McVicar.)

Laura Claycomb also has a busy concert schedule with premier orchestras and conductors, as well as a burgeoning recital schedule.

She sang the world premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen's "Five Images after Sappho," with Salonen and the LA Philharmonic, at the Ojai Festival in 1999, with the London Sinfonietta at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in and then at Carnegie Hall with Ensemble Sospeso. She repeated the Salonen songs, along with Stravinsky songs, with Ensemble Modern in Japan. She also sang the part of the Angel in Debussy's "Le Martyre de St. Sebastien" with Salonen and the Stockholm Radio Orchestra in Stockholm. She will next sing with Salonen and the LA Phil in a staged production of Mahler's 8th Symphony, staged by Peter Sellars.

With Richard Hickox, she sang concerts of Haydn's Creation (Spoleto Festival), Ann Trulove Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress" (Barbican Hall), Vaughan-Williams' "A Sea Symphony" at the Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the music of Grainger at the BBC Proms as well as the Messiah both with San Francisco Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Also with Hickox, she sang Gretel in "Hänsel und Gretel" with the London Symphony Orchestra. Next with Hickox and the LSO, Claycomb will sing "Carmina Burana" and Barber's "Knoxville, Summer of 1915." Claycomb also sang Mahler's Second Symphony with Andrew Davis and the LSO. Next with the LSO, she will sing Mahler's Fourth Symphony with Valery Gerghiev in London and in Athens.

She sang numerous concerts with Emmanuelle Haim in France and at the Aldeburgh Festival in the U.K., performing works such as "Il delirio amoroso," "Apollo e Dafne," Händel chamber duets and Vivaldi cantatas. In the U.S., Ms. Claycomb has sung with Ms. Haim in concerts of "Il delirio amoroso" and suites from Rameau's "Ippolite et Aricie" and "Les Indes Galantes" with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the New World Symphony. Most recently with Ms. Haim, she performed excerpts of Handel's Giulio Cesare with David Daniels and le Concert d'Astrée at the Cortona Festival.

With Sir Roger Norrington, Claycomb won accolades on a European concert tour of Berlioz' "Benvenuto Cellini" (Teresa) and again with the Stuttgart Radio in Vaughan-Williams' "A Sea Symphony." With the Munich Radio Orchestra, Claycomb has performed Bellini's I Capuleti e I Montecchi in concert (Roberto Abbado), Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor (Sebastian Weigle), as well as Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and an all-Mozart program with Ulf Schirmer.

Claycomb debuted at the Blossom Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra and Frans Welser-Möst in "Carmina Burana." She returned in the "Messiah" to Severance Hall with Bob Porco, and again with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra in the title role of Stravinsky's Le Rossignol. Most recently in Cleveland, she performed Debussy's "Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien" with composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher.

Her most recent concert with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson-Thomas was in Mahler's Eighth Symphony on tour in Europe, after many successful concerts at San Francisco's Davies Hall in Mozart's "Exultate, jubilate," Strauss' "Brentano Lieder," repertoire by Schoenberg, Wagner and Toch, and Mahler's Fourth Symphony, whose recording was nominated for a Grammy. Laura Claycomb will next perform Brahms' Deutches Requiem with the SFSO.

Recitals have taken Laura Claycomb into daring repertoire and interesting venues. Claycomb has thrilled audiences in San Francisco, San Antonio, Chicago, London (BBC Voices), Bruges (Concertgebouw), Houston, Brussels (Théâtre de la Monnaie), Santiago de Compostela, Spain and Cortona, Italy (Tuscan Sun Festival) in past years.

Future projects include: Anne Trulove in a new Rake's Progress with Luc Bondy and Edward Gardiner at the Paris Opera, Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gerghiev, Giulietta in I Capuleti e I Montecchi at Pittsburgh Opera, Brahms Requiem with Michael Tilson-Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, Polissena in Handel's Radamisto at Santa Fe Opera in a new David Alden production with Harry Bicket conducting, Tytania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Houston Grand Opera and a world tour with Alain Platel's next show "Sacrefice."

Laura Claycomb is a native of Texas and lives in Europe. She trained at Southern Methodist University where she received two bachelors' degrees in Music and Foreign Languages, and at the San Francisco Opera Center where she was an Adler Fellow from 1991 to 1994. She was a silver medallist at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1994.