Cynthia Clarey

Cynthia Clarey, born April 25, 1949, in Smithfield, Virginia, is an American operatic singer and educator whose career has encompassed soprano and mezzo-soprano roles, concert performance, cabaret, and Broadway. She relocated with her family to Rocky Mount, North Carolina at age ten, and from childhood sang in both school and church choirs. After completing high school in 1966, Clarey enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she earned a bachelor of music degree in 1970. She subsequently attended the Juilliard School in New York City, where her original intention was to pursue musical theater rather than opera — a preference that led her to walk out of a master class conducted by opera singer Maria Callas when the subject arose. Despite that friction with faculty, Clarey remained at Juilliard and received a postgraduate diploma in 1972.

Her professional operatic career began with a debut at the American Opera Center in the role of Pamina in Mozart's Magic Flute. During her early years in New York City, Clarey worked as a chorister on productions including Carmina Burana and the Alvin Ailey Dance Company's Revelations. She has recalled experiencing racial prejudice during this period, including an incident in which a director sought to remove a Black chorister from a scene on the grounds that she did not appear authentic to Mozart. Clarey later joined the Tri-Cities Opera Company in Binghamton, New York, where she first performed the character of Carmen in Georges Bizet's opera of the same name. The role became closely identified with her throughout her career, and she performed it across the United States and internationally.

In 1983, Clarey appeared on Broadway in La Tragedie de Carmen. The following year she made her European operatic debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in L'incoronazione di Poppea, and returned to Glyndebourne two years later to sing the role of Serena in Porgy and Bess. Reflecting on that role, Clarey expressed admiration for Ruby Elzy, the African-American soprano who originated Serena in 1935 under a demanding schedule of eight performances per week. Clarey described Serena's music as exceptionally difficult to sing while simultaneously acting the role. She is featured on the Glyndebourne cast recording of Porgy and Bess, conducted by Simon Rattle with the London Philharmonic, released in 1989; the recording received a Grammy Award nomination and has been recognized as one of the foremost classically oriented recordings of the opera.

Clarey performed with a wide range of major opera companies and houses, including the Royal Opera House in London, the Opéra-Comique in Paris, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Teatro Municipale in Reggio Emilia, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos, Toronto Opera, and the CAPAB Opera in Cape Town. Her festival appearances included the Wexford Festival Opera, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and the Bregenz Festival. As a concert artist, she performed with orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

As her voice matured, Clarey found that her vocal range had dropped approximately an octave. After a period away from singing, she moved to Chicago and turned to cabaret performance, describing the genre as intimate and unforgiving in contrast to opera, and characterizing it as feeling like home. In 2008 she joined the faculty of Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts, where she teaches voice and performance. She has also served as a guest professor at Indiana University Bloomington.