Canadian soprano Layla Claire studied voice at l’Université de Montréal before attending the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2010 she became the first recipient of The Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award. In 2008 she received the Mozart Prize at the Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition. She is also a CBC Radio-Canada Jeunes Artistes recital winner, a recipient of J. Desmarais Foundation Bursaries, and a proud recipient of a Canada Council Grant. She has taken prizes at the Palm Beach Opera Competition, The George London Foundation Competition, and the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists competition.

Layla Claire’s interpretations of Mozart’s heroines have garnered accolades throughout North America and Europe. In 2009 she has sung the role of Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at Palm Beach Opera and with James Levine and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra she performed the roles of Fiordiligi (2007) and Donna Anna (2009) to great acclaim. With the Curtis Opera Theatre she sang the roles of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro. In 2010 she appeared with the Académie d’Aix-en-Provence where she was awarded the Prix des amis d’Aix-en-Provence for best Mozart performance.

Her concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9 under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and four concerts as a featured artist in the Met’s Summer Recital Series, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 for her Boston Symphony debut conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas and later on with James Levine, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Virginia Symphony. She has performed at the Festivals of Tanglewood, Manchester and Lanaudière.

Layla's 2011-12 season includes a New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall and debuts with the Dallas, Toronto, Baltimore and Kansas City Symphonies as well as the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. In December 2011 she creates the role of Helena in the Metropolitan Opera’s Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island conducted by William Christie. As a participant of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program she continues to perform at the Metropolitan Opera.