Claire Galloway
Biography
Projects and Media
Schedule
Recent Highlights
Description
What is a Geniza?
In Judaism, sacred documents cannot be destroyed. Some were buried in cemeteries - and others were put into sacred storage areas built into synagogues. These storage areas were called Genizas.
In Cairo, there was a very large one, but people assumed its contents were worthless for centuries. Until the late 1800s when two intrepid Scottish sisters came along.
Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson were orphaned by age 23 but afforded an incredible fortune and education by their single father. They learned multiple languages and were intrepid travelers. After their husbands both passed away, they decided to explore the Middle East and put their languages to use.
They traveled via camel purchased some documents from the Cairo Geniza and brought them home to Cambridge.
They called upon Rabbi Solomon Schechter, a Jewish scholar based at Cambridge University to review one of the documents. It turned out to be one leaf of an early manuscript of Ecclesiasticus (also known as Ben Sira), which had been thought lost to history.
From there, the race began to discover more of what the Cairo Geniza held.
To this date, not all of the 190,000 + manuscripts have been sifted through and identified but amongst them were more leaves of the lost Ben Sira and documentation of the lives of Cairo Jews - often forgotten about when discussing the sects/groups of Judaism, normally divided only into two groups (Ashkenazic and Sephardic).
In the third act of Arnold Saltzman’s opera we dive into the story of Leah and Rachel - two sisters who decide to switch places during their arranged marriage. This was another story found amongst the fragments and the costumes depicted in the last photo above show the ornate colors of such a wedding.
The opera in its entirety is the story of three women, Agnes, Margaret, and Solomon’s scholarly and feminist wife Mathilde, who work alongside Solomon to obtain, photograph, translate, and share this otherwise unknown side of Egyptian Jewish life to the world.
Theatre of the Arts in DC
Claire Galloway
Mathilde Schechter & Miriam
Dates
Description
Christian Lane, director
Claire Galloway, soprano
Robin McGinness, baritone
Maxwell Foster, piano
Chengcheng Yao, piano
Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 is one of the most beloved choral works of the 19th century, and The Emmanuel Choir presents the complete work utilizing the composer’s chamber scoring for virtuoso four-hand piano. Join us for this poignant musical event, as we mark both the Feast of All Saints and Veteran’s Day, remembering those who have gone before us.
Claire Galloway
Soprano Soloist
Dates
Description
In honor of Veterans Day and the recently passed All Saint’s Day, this recital presents many ways to say goodbye and to grieve. We so hope you will join us and stay for a beautiful evensong featuring compositions by our friend Morgan Sullivan.
We are ever grateful to Douglas Buchanan and St. David’s Roland Park for having us!
The program includes works by:
David Conte & Christina Rossetti,
Francis Poulenc & Louise de Vilmorin,
Erich Korngold & Christina Rossetti,
Peter Lieberson & Pablo Neruda,
Ricky Ian Gordon & Langston Hughes,
and Gunnar de Frumerie & Pär Lagerkvist
Claire Galloway
Recitalist
Dates
Claire Galloway
Chorus
Dates
Description
We are excited to perform our holiday program this year at Woodbrook Baptist Church in Towson. Join us for gorgeous new arrangements of beloved carols and Hanukkah songs, excerpts from Handel's Messiah, and seasonal gems by Peter Cornelius, Aaron Copland, Roger Quilter, Samuel Barber, Hyo Geun Kim and more.
Claire Galloway
Traditional Ladino Songs
Dates
Biography
Claire Galloway
Scottish-American soprano Claire Galloway’s theatricality covers the gamut of “palpable pain” and “splendid, funny moments” (B.I.T.R.). This season Ms. Galloway was a Brown Loranger Fellow at Songfest, attended the Nordic Song Festival in Trollhättan, Sweden, returns as a featured artist with Baltimore Musicales, will premiere two roles in Arnold Saltzman’s Geniza: Hidden Fragments with the Chesapeake Symphony this October, and sings her first Brahms "Ein deutsches Requiem" as soprano soloist.
Having performed roles such as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Blanche (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), Contessa (Nozze di Figaro), and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), she has also premiered roles in the new Podcast Opera Company’s Friends House by Steven Crino, Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park and Frances Pollock’s Stinney, featured in the 2019 Prototype Festival.
In 2022 Ms. Galloway won first place in the North International Music Competition and Second Prize in the International Clara Schumann Competition for her art song interpretations, in 2021 she was a semifinalist in the Jensen Vocal Competition, 2021 and 2020 the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, 2021, 2020 and 2019 the NYIOPS/Premiere Opera Vocal Competition, 2019 the Partners for the Arts Vocal Competition, and in 2018 a semifinalist in the Mildred Miller Competition and a finalist in the Saltworks Opera Competition. She has performed with Lidal North in Oslo, Opera NexGen, Saltworks Opera, Opera Baltimore (previously Baltimore Concert Opera), the Savannah Voice Festival, Bel Cantanti Opera, and Stillpointe Theatre.
A recent Fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Ms. Galloway’s innovative recital programing has resulted in the best-attended concert event at the Baltimore War Memorial Arts Initiative in past seasons. In 2018 she worked with Baltimore Musicales to present a recital based on the life of Rosa Ponselle at the elegant George Peabody Library. Ms. Galloway is curator of the related Ponselle exhibit at the Peabody Institute, where she currently teaches diction and repertoire courses.
