Praised for her “masterful” playing (Bend Bulletin), Claire Forstman is the Company Pianist for Oregon Ballet Theatre and the Principal Keyboard for the Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestra. Most at home in intensely collaborative musical spaces, she is the principal pianist this season for productions of Swan Lake (OBT), The Nutcracker (OBT), La bohème (Seattle Opera), La traviata (Portland Opera), The Raven (Renegade Opera), and Little Shop of Horrors (Portland Center Stage). She also joins Resonance Ensemble for three concerts (Brunch and Bad Decisions; Conquest Requiem; On This Land), Ping & Woof Opera for their annual production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Portland Symphonic Choir for their presentation of Poulenc’s Gloria.
Claire works often as a freelance opera repetiteur and maintains an active coaching studio working with singers of local, regional, and international acclaim. At Portland Opera, she has been principal pianist for six productions in the past two seasons as well as for shows at Seattle Opera, Vashon Opera, Renegade Opera, OrpheusPDX, Opera Steamboat, Florentine Opera, and OperaBend. She has been a Chorus Master for OrpheusPDX (Il sogno di Scipione), OperaBend (Die Fledermaus), and dell’Arte Opera Ensemble (Juana); and a Music Director for Renegade Opera (The Raven; Orlofsky’s Party), Portland State University’s Opera Department (The Gift of the Magi), and Portland Opera’s Resident Artists (Scenes Program). She recently made her operatic conducting debut in a performance of Jesse Preis’ The Raven with Renegade Opera.
Active in the regional and local scene, she has worked for the Oregon Bach Festival, ChatterPDX, New Wave Opera, Portland’s Opera on Tap, Portland’s Opera in the Park, Musica Mixta, the choir A Notion, A Scream, In Mulieribus, Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, BodyVox Dance company, and the Portland Ballet. She has played cabaret and non-classical shows including Good Grief, Dru Rutledge! (Fuse Theater/Fertile Ground, 2026), Opera Katherine (Fuse Theatre, 2025), Queer Eye for the Magi (Alberta Rose Theater, 2024), and Katherine Goforth’s Where would we be without defeat? (Stanford University, 2024). She is the principal accompanist of the GALA choir the Sage Singers.
Claire completed four years of opera apprenticeships at Portland Opera and the Florentine Opera and has held staff pianist positions with Opera Steamboat, Finger Lakes Opera, Chicago Summer Opera, dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, The Curiosity Cabinet, The Orchestra Now, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Milwaukee Ballet School and Academy, the Manhattan School of Music, and Sarah Lawrence College. She earned her degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the Eastman School of Music.