Claire Forstman is a music director, pianist, and vocal coach currently based in Portland, Oregon. Her upcoming engagements include shows with Seattle Opera (Pirates of Penzance) and Portland Opera (La bohème), where she has just finished two seasons as a member of their Resident Artists. A sought-after collaborator in the Pacific Northwest, this summer she rejoins many favorite regional companies: OperaBend for Il barbiere di Siviglia (La traviata, 2024); OrpheusPDX for Il sogno di Scipione (Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo, 2024); Renegade Opera for Waking the Witch (Orlofsky’s Party, 2024; American Patriots, 2023); Ping & Woof Opera for Così fan tutte (Amahl and the Night Visitors, 2025); and Vashon Opera for Cendrillon (Otello, 2024). She has also worked for the Oregon Bach Festival, Portland’s Opera on Tap, Portland State University’s Opera Department, New Wave Opera, the Portland Symphonic Choir, Portland’s Opera in the Park, and Resonance Ensemble.
In her residency with Portland Opera, Claire served as the principal pianist for the company’s productions of Falstaff, The Juliet Letters, and Puccini: In Concert. She assisted with productions of Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day and Paul Moravec’s The Shining as offstage conductor and orchestral keyboardist respectively. She also worked on the company’s production of Le nozze di Figaro as second pianist, chorus pianist, and coach.
Before moving to Portland in 2023, Claire was a studio artist for two seasons at the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she worked on productions of Rigoletto, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Roméo et Juliette, among others. She has also worked for Opera Steamboat (2023) in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Chicago Summer Opera (2022, 2023), dell’Arte Opera in New York City, (2019, 2022), and Finger Lakes Opera (2021) in Rochester, New York.
A passionate recitalist, she presents a solo program this summer for the Salon Series at Ascension Episcopal Parish, giving her debut performance of Schumann’s Fantasie in C, Op. 17. Recently, she was a collaborator for acclaimed vocalist Katherine Goforth’s recital “Where Would We Be Without Defeat” at Stanford University. She also works as a dance accompanist and has played for the Oregon Ballet Theatre School, BodyVox dance company, the Portland Ballet Academy, and the Milwaukee Ballet School and Academy.
Claire is a proud transgender woman and is originally from Birmingham, Alabama; she received her Master’s in Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and her Bachelor’s in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music.