Claire Happel Ashe is a versatile performer known for integrating diverse aspects of music and movement. Her playing on the harp has been described as "sensitive but sharply focused" (Avant Music News) and possessing "mesmerizing perfection" (Harp Column). She currently lives in Macomb, Ill. with her jazz pianist-composer husband, Whitney Ashe, and son, Sawyer.

Historical Harp
As a historical harpist on the Baroque triple harp, Claire frequently plays continuo for the music of early modern Italy, England, and New Spain, among others. She has performed on the Early Music at the Colby Barn Series, WFMT Chicago, and with Trio Speranza, Concerto Urbano, EnsAmble Ad-Hoc, and the Newberry Consort. She recently appeared on the recording, A Mexican Christmas. Her teachers include Cheryl Ann Fulton, Charlotte Mattax Moersch, and Christa Patton at the Madison Early Music Festival and Queens College Early Opera Workshop.

Orchestral Harp
Claire has appeared with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of the Dominican Republic, and many orchestras throughout the Chicago region. As an orchestral harpist, she has performed in concert halls including Symphony Center in Chicago, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Rudolfinum in Prague, Jordan Hall in Boston, and Powell Hall in St. Louis. Soloist appearances include concerti with the Quincy Symphony Orchestra, Artemis Chamber Orchestra, and the University of Illinois Philharmonia as a winner of the Armstrong Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Performance.

Contemporary Music
An advocate of new music, Claire has performed with contemporary ensembles such as the Chicago Composers Orchestra, International Ensemble Modern Academy, Ostavská Banda, Berg Orchestra, and on the Pulitzer Series of St. Louis, curated by David Robertson. She has commissioned and premiered works by many composers including Caroline Shaw, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Han Lash, Douglas Fisk, Lainie Fefferman, Nomi Epstein, James Moore, Miroslav Srnka, Jana Vöröšová, Evan Premo, Frederick Evans, Griffin Candey, and Whitney Ashe.

Chamber Projects
She regularly collaborates in chamber music performances with bassist Philip Alejo (River Town Duo) and oboist Karisa Antonio (Immer Neu). River Town Duo’s recording, For Claire and Philip, was released in 2021 on Furious Artisan Records. Previously, she commissioned and premiered works with guitarist James Moore and mandolin player Jeremy Harting (Noble Fowl Trio) through grants grants from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Illinois Arts Council (IAC), and the Urbana Arts & Culture Program. In 2022, she began learning joropo, the music of the plains of the Colombian and Venezuelan border region, with Daniel Rojas funded through the IAC Ethnic and Folk Arts Master Artist Apprentice Program.

Festivals & Conferences
In the summers, she has performed at the Midwest Harp Festival, American Harp Society Conferences and Institutes in Chicago, Logan (UT), and Tacoma (WA), the International Society of Bassists Convention in Fort Collins (CO), and Michigan State University’s Harp Day. As a student, she attended the Aspen Music Festival, Festival MusicAlp, International Ensemble Modern Academy, Round Top Music Festival-Institute, Hot Springs Music Festival, and was a harp fellow at the 2011 Saratoga Harp Colony.

Weddings & Events
Claire spent ten summers as the harpist at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and during those winters was a regular sub for tea at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. Her wide repertoire and bright personality make her a favorite for special events. Find out more about her music for weddings and events here.

Movement
Claire has performed in many modern dance settings in the works of Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, Laura Chiaramonte, Jessica Ray, Luc Vanier, Sara Hook, Mary Barnett, Kathryn Kollar, David Parker, David Neumann, and Nicholas Leichter, among others, and in Baroque dance performances with Philip Johnston. While a graduate student at Yale, she organized the student group Yale Movement Improvisation and Composition, producing a concert of works, GalleryDance. She assisted with the Creative Movement for Children class with Kate Kuper during her doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and taught movement classes for musical theater minors at Olivet Nazarene University until moving to Macomb in 2021.

Alexander Technique
At the intersection of music and movement, she is trained in the Alexander Technique. Her doctoral research (funded by a P.E.O Scholar Award) explored applications of the Alexander Technique to harp performance. She has contributed articles on its application to the harp in the American Harp Journal and the upcoming book Dance for Everyday Movement: A Framework for Integration.

She has presented, demonstrated, and guest taught in the Alexander Technique at the World Harp Congress in Dublin, Alexander Technique Congress in Chicago, Lyon & Healy’s Harp Day in Chicago, the University of Arizona, Illinois Summer Youth Music, and Roosevelt University’s Alexander Technique Day. She was on the faculty of Valparaiso University from 2017-2021 as an Alexander Technique instructor, and previously assisted in classes for theater, dance, and music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Music in the Mountains Festival. She currently teaches private lessons in Macomb, Ill.

She was first introduced to the Alexander Technique through dance professors Rebecca Nettl-Fiol, Luc Vanier, and Cynthia Pipkin-Doyle at the University of Illinois. While there, she worked with teachers Andrew McCann, Lauren Hill, and many other teachers-in-training. She is a graduate of the Alexander Technique Centre Urbana (Joan and Alex Murray), and her perspective on movement is largely based on ideas in developmental movement of anatomists and physicians such as Raymond Dart and James Kenneth McConnel as interpreted by the Murrays and Nettl-Fiol and Vanier.

Educational Background
She holds degrees in harp performance from Yale University (June Han) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Ann Yeung), where she also received a BFA in Dance and a cognate in historical performance practice under Charlotte Mattax Moersch. In 2007-08, she studied in Prague on a Fulbright Scholarship with harpist Jana Boušková. She was an Associate Harpist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2009-2015 and considers Sarah Bullen to be an important mentor.

Teaching
She teaches harp, Alexander Technique, and movement in Macomb, Ill. Previously, she served on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame, Music Institute of Chicago, Valparaiso University, Saint Mary’s College, Olivet Nazarene University, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, as a teaching assistant at Yale University and the University of Illinois, and frequently as harp coach for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. From 2015-2021, she led the James Hart Harp Program in the Homewood (IL) Public Schools. She is currently training toward certification in the Dalcroze Method of music and movement and received a 2021 Dalcroze USA Scholarship.

Origins & Other Interests
Claire is originally from Quincy, Ill. where she was introduced to music and movement through the dedicated artists Sarama Schnack and Beth Heinze and the music program of the public schools. Outside of music and movement, Claire is a member of P.E.O. Chapter K and previously was a member of Soroptimist International of Chicago, an organization to help improve the lives of women and girls. She produced stories (click here!) for public radio as a 2009 Arts Desk intern at NPR headquarters in Washington, DC.