About
The French harpist Claire Augier de Lajallet started playing music at the age of five with the piano; her idea of playing the harp had a little disconcerted her parents. Three years later, she repeated her request and began studying this instrument, which she had discovered during a visit to the Gargilesse summer festival. She studied with Isabelle Lagors, Nathalie Weber and Frédérique Degrange-Veyrac at the music school (Conservatoire à rayonnement départemental, CRD) in Chartres, before going on with Aurélie Saraf at the CRD in Bobigny, and Florence Bourdon. She completed a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in cultural management at Sciences Po Paris, which allowed her to discover another way of teaching and another vision of the harp and music in Vancouver with Heidi Krutzen (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonia), during her exchange year at the University of British Columbia.
Claire then left for Germany to complete her Bachelor's degree in harp with Prof. Andreas Mildner (ex solo harp of the WDR Köln) at the University of Music (Hochschule für Musik) in Würzburg, before arriving in Munich for her Master's degree in harp with Prof. Cristina Bianchi (ex solo harp of the BRSO München), which she obtained in July 2019. She has also diversified her training by attending masterclasses with internationally renowned harpists such as Xavier de Maistre, Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Caroline Lizotte, Gishlaine Petit-Volta, Jana Bouskova, Gisèle Herbet. Particularly fond of the orchestra, she plays extra harp in the following orchestras: Münchner Philharmoniker, Nürnberger Staatsphilharmonie, Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonie, Prague Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Opéra National de Lorraine, Nürnberger Symphoniker, Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg, Würzburg Philharmonisches Orchester, Jenaer Philharmoniker, Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich, Capella Aquileia Heidenheim, Georgisches Kammerorchester Ingolstadt, Münchner Symphoniker, Münchner Bach-Orchester, Vogtland-Philharmonie, SinfonieOrchester Villingen-Schwenningen.
As a soloist, Claire was a finalist in the international harp competition "Suoni d'Arpa" in 2015 in Saluzzo, Italy; she performs regularly in recitals, on request, and was a laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Foundation, which brings music to people who cannot attend concert anymore (hospitals, homes for senior citizens, prisons) from 2018 to 2021.
Passionate about chamber music, she recently founded a Trio with Déborah Broggia (flute) and Emille Jouette (viola) and a flute/harp Duett. She also plays in the Duo La Mer with the pianist Fruzsina Lugosi. She is currently building up a Organ-Harp Duett mit Gilles Oltz, after their participation at the Organ Festival Strasorgues at the Summer 2024 in Strasbourg. Interested in contemporary creation, she premiered Wilfried Hiller's "Hoffnung" with violinist Arabella Steinbacher and the Monteverdi Chor Würzburg in 2017. She recently joined the Ensemble Biblische Lieder and collaborated with composer Peter Schneider on a CD of Christmas carols. The Ensemble Biblische Lieder has recorded another CD in 2022.
Her debut solo CD "Memories" has been released in June 2023 with Klarthe Records thanks to a scholarship from the GVL-Neustart Kultur, which rewards artists who have contributed to keeping the music alive during the pandemic. The CD will focus on the artist's contemplation of nature and heritage and will offer a journey from the Middle East to the Canadian forests, with works by Corentin Boissier, Ami Maayani, Ludovico Einaudi, Louise Charpentier, Marius Flothuis, Giovanni Caramiello, Cagatay Akyol and a commissioned work by Canadian composer Eileen Padgett. The Press critics are excellent.
The harpist considers creativity and the connection to other arts to be of paramount importance; she has performed several times at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, at the exhibition of the painter Julia Kolev, and in November 2019, she played solo and duo performances with the flutist Martina Silvester as well as other musicians of the Münchner Bach-Orchester of impressionist music at the Kunsthalle as part of the exhibition "Kanada und der Impressionismus". Together with the tenor Thomas Kiechle, she has created the music show "The Harpist and the Tenor: A Happy Wedding?", which she wrote herself and in which a couple who are having a hard time makes a musical journey around the world as a therapy.
Claire Augier de Lajallet has extensive teaching experience, including private lessons in Paris, Würzburg and Munich, her participation as a harp teacher in the children's orchestra course "Les petites mains symphoniques", and her positions at the Camerloher Musikschule in Murnau am Staffelsee (2018-2019), the Jungendmusikschule Gräfelfing (2018-2019), the Simon-Mayer Mayr städische Musikschule Ingolstadt (2019-2020), the Musikfreies Zentrum München (2020-2021), the Musikschule Oberhaching (2019-2022), the Musikschule Schwarz (since 2017). Claire teaches private lessons in her studio in Munich Giesing. From March 24th, she teaches at the Musikschule Bruchsal.
Always eager to learn, Claire embarked on a new musical adventure in the summer of 2018: learning the triple harp, which she followed in Milan with Chiara Granata. In 2019 and 2021, she performed at the Musica Antica festival in Urbino, Italy, where her interest in Renaissance and Baroque music led her. She studied with Nanja Breedijk at the CRD of Versailles in triple harp and basso continuo from 2019 to 2021 and then continued with Tanja Vogrin at the Konservatorium Josef Fux in Graz, Austria from 2021 to 2023. In 2023, she continued her studies with Flora Papadopoulos at the famous Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland.
Claire is keen to bring music to places where it is lacking: trained in this spirit by the Live Music Now Foundation, she plays at the Barmherzige Brüder hospital in Munich for patients undergoing palliative care.