A pianist with “an artistic ferocity that captivated and astonished listeners” (Waverly Newspapers), Clare Longendyke is a soloist, chamber musician, and fearless advocate for new music who brings daring repertoire and thoughtful storytelling to the concert stage. Her performances are marked by imaginative programming, charismatic stage presence, and a gift for weaving together contemporary works and classical favorites.
In 2024, Clare released her debut solo album, …of dreams unveiled, featuring music by Claude Debussy, Amy Williams, and Anthony R. Green. The album reached #2 on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart and was praised as “a work of remarkable pianistic invention” (The WholeNote), “delightfully daring” and “a CD that should not be missed” (EarRelevant). The recording continues to receive airplay on classical radio stations nationwide and has been lauded by music critics across North America.
“[Clare Longendyke] demonstrated perfect control, sometimes bending in so closely to her instrument one wondered whether her body might not simply merge with the keyboard.”
MIKE SHERER, WAVERLY NEWSPAPERS
A passionate advocate for the music of our time, Clare creates programs that pair beloved composers of the past—Beethoven, Debussy, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Amy Beach, to name a few—with voices shaping the future of classical music. She has commissioned over 30 new works and performed more than 250 world premieres, collaborating closely with composers to create music that reflects the complexity and diversity of our time.
Highlights of Clare’s 2025–26 season include concerto appearances with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, Symphony New Hampshire, the Danville Symphony of Illinois, and the Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective. Past performance highlights include Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, The Schubert Club of Minnesota, University of Chicago Presents, and The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. She has recently appeared as a soloist with the Mankato Symphony, Rochester Symphony, Symphonicity, and Oak Ridge Symphony, and her playing has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today.
Clare has lived and studied on both American coasts and abroad, earning degrees from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts (BM) and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (MM, DM). An ardent Francophile and fluent French speaker, she received the Fulbright–Harriet Hale Woolley Award in the Arts to study at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. She has served as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and continues to engage deeply with communities as a performer, educator, and advocate for equity on the classical concert stage.
Whether from the stage or in conversation, Clare invites audiences into the heart of her artistry—one that builds bridges between tradition and transformation and brings the concert experience vividly to life.
Artist Statement
My childhood was filled with all kinds of music, from American jazz and folk to Bob Dylan and The Beatles. After a few months of lessons on a battery-operated miniature keyboard that barely fit my tiny, seven-year-old hands, my grandparents sent me their old Kimball upright from Florida: my first piano. It sat in the front entry of our Minnesota home, often subjected to treacherously cold gusts of wind when the door would open during our notoriously vicious winters. That December, those same grandparents sent me a selection of cassette tapes featuring classical hits, to inspire and steer my musical choices, I can only assume. When I got to the Arthur Rubinstein recording of Chopin’s most beloved piano works, I was captivated. I announced to my parents that my favorite composer was “Chop-in.”
I fell in love with music when my first grade teacher taught our class through song on a beaten up spinet piano in room 141 at Kenwood Elementary. From there, I fell in love with playing Disney music, arrangements of The Nutcracker, and watered-down classical standards. I didn’t play an original classical composition until I was a teenager, but when I did, I fell in love again. Bach triggered my obsessive need to overcome insurmountable challenges; Beethoven made me yearn to practice; but my favorite? Chopin, of course. Back then, I was ravenous for classical piano music. And I still am.
I believe that classical music is for everyone, no matter how you pronounce the names of its idolized composers or if you’ve ever attended a live orchestra concert. My artistic mission is to open the classical music stage to a broader range of representation, to shine light into the dark corners of classical music’s past where the work of women and composers of color is too often shelved, and to pave the way towards a more inclusive future by commissioning and performing new works of music by the composers I wish to see written about in text books for years to come.
Today, I make music for the people who don’t think they like classical music, for those who have never met a living composer or heard a new piece written in the last 5 years, and for classical music aficionados, eager to expand their knowledge of the art form through creative programming and fresh perspectives. I make music for everyone, because I believe that classical music is for everyone.