Clara has been deeply passionate about music from a young age and has dedicated her life to sharing that passion through trombone and piano playing, teaching and outreach work. She began her musical journey by taking up piano at 6 and trombone at 9 after years of prior music theory instruction. She quickly became a member of all musical groups available to her, joining the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland at age 12. In 2011, Clara moved to Somerset to take up a full scholarship as a specialist musician in Wells Cathedral School, taking trombone lessons with Alan Hutt, former trombonist of the Covent Garden Opera Orchestra. While at Wells, Clara took leading roles in chamber music and large ensembles both in and out of school, as well as receiving extensive instruction in classical and jazz piano. During her studies she received her ATCL piano diploma with distinction, ABRSM trombone grade 8 with distinction and ABRSM grade 5 classical singing, also with distinction.

Music College auditions saw scholarship offers from several institutions including the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, however Clara chose to join the prestigious class of Ian Bousfield (former principal trombone of London Symphony Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) in Bern, Switzerland. Following her Bachelor’s Degree, Clara continued in Bern with a Master’s Degree in Music Pedagogy, taking first study trombone and continuing her education as a classical pianist, accompanist, jazz pianist and jazz and classical singer. Clara passed her required module of piano during University in one year instead of two, receiving the highest possible grade. Clara graduated in 2019 with a first-class-honours, having completed her MA through a combination of French and German.
While in university, Clara was delighted to take up the position of trombone tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland’s outreach programme and also worked throughout Switzerland teaching both trombone and piano. She has volunteered extensively with children, creating and leading music workshops for children with autism in Scoil Triest in Cork and spending the past two summers with the Society of St Vincent de Paul as a summer camp leader for their community outreach programme, Sunshine House. Clara was a participant in the RTE Symphony Orchestra’s mentoring scheme for the 2017/18 season, and has played professionally with, among others, the Opera Orchestra of Normandie, the RTE Concert Orchestra and for Adele’s world tour “Adele Live 2016”.

Since moving to London in September of 2019, Clara has been teaching piano, trombone and trumpet to pupils throughout London as part of the teams of the Haringey Music Service and HMDT. She has extensive experience teaching all three instruments online and is happy to take on new pupils of any level.