Biography

GRAMMY-nominated oboist Claire Chenette has been principal oboe with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra since 2014. Additionally, Claire performs in diverse settings as a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera, Wildup modern music collective, and Nief Norf. Claire has been a regular guest with the San Diego, Pacific, and Chattanooga Symphonies and the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestras, among others. She has performed as concerto soloist with the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra, the Breckenridge Music Festival, and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. As a recording artist, Claire appears on many film and TV scores and has credits as both performer and songwriter with her bands Bearcubes and Three Thirds. Her recording with Wildup, “The Pieces that Fall to the Earth,” was nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY award in the best chamber music/small ensemble performance category.

An advocate for new music, Claire has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the New York Philharmonic’s Biennial, the Lucerne, Big Ears, and Ojai Festivals; and at institutions such as Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, Disney Hall, and Salle Pleyel Paris. Claire has devoted herself to performing contemporary solo repertoire, including many memorized performances of Berio’s iconic Sequenza VII/Chemins IV, and to premiering new works for the oboe.

Claire holds a Master’s degree from the California Institute of the Arts and two Bachelor’s degrees in oboe and religious studies from Oberlin. She has been on faculty at the North Carolina Governor’s School, Nief Norf Summer Festival, and East Tennessee State University, and frequently gives recitals and workshops on contemporary music at institutions such as North Carolina School for the Arts, University of Utah, UNC Chapel Hill, Oberlin Conservatory, CalArts, and the Jazz Composers Orchestral Institute. She also teaches a studio of private oboe students in Knoxville.

In addition to her musical career, Claire is a visual artist. She also enjoys gardening, fermentation, dancing, folk music, bicycling, and endless collaborative projects. Recent projects include collaboratively generating an experimental music theater production for the Lucerne Theatre in Switzerland, co-writing a space-rock musical about reproductive freedom on Planet Chattanooga, painting an original tarot deck that satirizes COVID-era academia, and achieving master beekeeper certification.