Clare Longendyke is an award-winning pianist whose dazzling musicianship and colorful interpretations delight audiences wherever she performs. Recognized by colleagues and listeners for the expressive energy and originality she brings to new and traditional classical music, the effervescent soloist and chamber musician won four national competitions and was a finalist in several others during the past decade.
Set apart by her inspiring touch and captivating way of sharing music, Longendyke is a sought-after soloist, performing over 50 concerts a year in North America and Europe. Recent orchestral partners include Boston’s Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in Minnesota. BSO conductor Manny Laureano says working with Longendyke is “an incredible pleasure.” Other conductors have called her “a world-class pianist.”
Longendyke’s appeal has earned her spots as a featured soloist in notable concert series such as National Public Radio’s Performance Today, the Fazioli Piano Series in Los Angeles, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ SoundBites Series. She has also performed at renowned festivals, such as the Alba Music Festival in Alba, Italy, European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France, the Académie du Festival Pablo Casals, in Prades, France, the New Music on the Point Festival in Vermont, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine.
Before earning master’s and doctoral degrees at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Longendyke completed degrees at Boston University's College of Fine Arts, and the École Normale de Musique in Paris. The ardent Francophile and French-speaking pianist received the Harriet Hale Woolley Award in the Arts to study music in France as an undergraduate.
Longendyke blends a passion for music’s classical tradition with an equal affection for what she calls “the music of our time.” Her advocacy for innovative music and programming are evident through two music ensembles she co-founded, CT:2 and Uproar Duo, as well as Music in Bloom, a new music festival she founded in 2019.
In less than a decade, she has premiered over 100 new compositions and performed the music of today’s most exciting living composers—works by Joan Tower, Frederic Rzewski, Mason Bates, Vivian Fung, Gabriela Lena Frank and others. Recent recordings include Homage to Nadia Boulanger: Works for Viola and Piano with Rose Wollman, and In the City, new works for Saxophone and Piano with Andrew Harrison.
When Longendyke isn’t on tour, she divides her time between Indianapolis and Chicago. In Indianapolis, she is Artistic Director of Music in Bloom; in Chicago, she is Artist-in-Residence and Director of Chamber Music at the University of Chicago. She also leads master classes at some of the nation’s most recognizable conservatories, including the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.Hailed as a superlative pianist by the Journal of International Alliance of Women in Music, Longendyke is on track for a transcendent career as a soloist. Her efforts to bring innovative musical experiences to public places and historic sites earned her a nomination for the Indianapolis Business Journal’s Women of Influence award in 2019.
- Crystal Hammon, 2020
