Claire M Singer

About
Claire M Singer is a composer and performer of acoustic and electronic music, film and installations. Known for her experimental approach to the organ her work draws inspiration from the dramatic landscape of her native Scotland, exploring rich harmonic textures and complex overtones that create ever-shifting melodic and rhythmic patterns disappearing almost as soon as they emerge. Her three critically acclaimed releases on Touch feature Singer playing both organ and cello (‘..each piece is timeless and genuinely magical’ – The Quietus). Performances include Queen Elizabeth Hall; Glasgow Cathedral; Tate Modern; Westerkerk opening for Low and the Barbican opening for Stars of the Lid. The Guardian wrote ‘Claire M Singer really knows how to wring the best out of this magnificent instrument, creating moments of sustained rapture’ Most recently in December 2021 her solo organ work The Molendinar featured in The New York Times '5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Organ'.

Awards include the Oram Award in 2017 for her innovation in sound and music and the Festival Castell de Peralada Award for best film score in 2019 (Tell It To The Bees). In 2020 her work Gleann Ciùin was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award, which was commissioned by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Recent projects include a collaboration with Chris Watson for organ, field recordings, orchestra and choir premiering at her festival Organ Reframed at Union Chapel in 2022.


Singer has been Music Director of the organ at the award-winning venue Union Chapel in Islington, London since 2012. In 2016 she founded the only festival of its kind in the UK, Organ Reframed, which focuses on commissioning and presenting innovative new experimental music, which re-imagines the organ for both artist and audience. Past commissions include Éliane Radigue, Low, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie.

Claire is also Artistic Director of the organ reframed festival at Union Chapel which she launched in 2016. The only festival of its kind in the UK, organ reframed focuses on commissioning innovative new music and introducing new artists and audiences to how versatile the organ is.
‘..each piece is timeless and genuinely magical’ – The Quietus

‘Claire M Singer really knows how to wring the best out of this magnificent instrument, creating moments of sustained rapture’
- The Guardian

‘Singer’s unabashed but unaffected exploitation of the organ’s potential tonal abundance is refreshing’ - Dalston Sound

‘Why have we had to wait this long for this excellent sound to be recorded and released?’ - Norman Records