Biography
and poetry
are born sensitive spaces
Clara Olivares is a French-Spanish composer, holder of a Doctorate in composition from the University of California, Berkeley. Winner of several awards, she has collaborated with prestigious ensembles such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Clara Olivares was born in 1993 in Strasbourg. After studying composition at the Haute École des Arts du Rhin in Strasbourg and obtaining her Master’s degree, she has held a Doctorate in composition from the University of California, Berkeley since 2021.
At the age of twenty-three, she wrote her first opera, Mary, for ensemble, puppets, and live electronics, premiered in 2017 by Ensemble XXI.n (with support from the French Ministry of Culture). In 2019, she participated in the "Opéra en création" Academy at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and received the Nicola DeLorenzo Composition Prize. In 2020, she was awarded the Beaumarchais-SACD grant for lyric writing with librettist Chloé Lechat and was admitted to the composition and computer music program at IRCAM. The following year, she composed Vers mes cieux vos regards pleins d’ivresse at IRCAM (commissioned by IRCAM/Radio France/Ensemble Intercontemporain) for the Présences 2022 Festival. She has been a laureate of the Fondation Banque Populaire since 2021. In 2022, she was selected for the Women Opera Makers Academy at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
In 2024, she was selected for the Artistic Research Residency Program at IRCAM (ARRP) for a six-month residency. Her second opera, Les Sentinelles, with a libretto by Chloé Lechat, will premiere in autumn 2024 at the Opéra de Bordeaux, before being performed at the Opéra de Limoges and then at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 2025, and received a Creation Grant from the French Ministry of Culture. That same year, she was awarded the SACD New Talent Music Prize and was a finalist for the ROSL Composition Award.
Her works have been premiered by, among others, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Arditti Quartet, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the Accentus Chamber Choir. Clara Olivares was associate composer of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris from 2020 to 2022.
Her pieces have been performed in the United States, Finland, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Luxembourg, Denmark, Brazil, and Venezuela. She has been broadcast on radio (France Musique, France Culture, Radio Classique, Accent 4, RCF, Radio Nacional de España, MDR Figaro, Ö1). Her works are published by Editions Gérard Billaudot, Leduc, and Accordinova.
