Claudia Stevens (born 1949) is an American musician, performance artist and librettist. Initially a pianist specializing in contemporary music, she is recognized for creating and performing widely an array of interdisciplinary solo performance works, and for her collaborations with composer Allen Shearer as librettist of fourteen operas.
Early career Claudia Stevens was born in Redding, California, on May 29, 1949, and attended Vassar College, graduating summa cum laude with the Frances Walker Prize in piano performance. She studied piano with Leon Fleisher, Arie Vardi and Leonard Shure,"Masters and Mentors of the Piano: an account by Claudia Stevens of her piano study with major piano teachers and performing artists of the second half of the twentieth century, 1966-81" https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/17035 receiving the DMA from Boston University in 1977. She also attended the University of California at Berkeley (MA in musicology, Alfred Hertz Fellowship, 1972) and twice was a fellow in piano at the Tanglewood Music Center. In 1977 Stevens joined the Music faculty at the College of William and Mary, where her papers and an archive of her original works and recordings are housed. Stevens's piano performancesDika Newlin, “Music,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 6, 1981 focused on new music, with recitals in 1979 and 1981 at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, in honor of Roger SessionsPaul Hume, “Music Notes,” Washington Post, May 1, 1979 and Aaron Copland.Joan Reinthaler, “Claudia Stevens,” Washington Post, April 21, 1981 Her 1983 Carnegie Recital Hall concert honoring Elliott Carter was sponsored by the New York Composers' Forum. Stevens commissioned over twenty American composers, including Shulamit Ran, Samuel Adler, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, Andrew Imbrie, Allen Shearer, Sheila Silver, Betsy Jolas, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Jeffrey Mumford and Vivian Fine, to contribute new pieces for those recitals, also performing them in DallasOlin Chism, “A birthday tribute for Elliott Carter,” Dallas Times Herald, 10-E, Dec. 21, 1983 and Boston's Jordan Hall. Most of the compositions, including two of her own, were published in the journal Perspectives of New Music.
1980s to 2000s In 1985 Stevens launched a career as a musical and dramatic solo performer, creating a repertoire of some twenty original works, first in collaboration with composers including Vivian Fine in The Heart Disclosed (1988)Channing Gray, “A pianist’s Poe-pourri,” The Providence Journal-Bulletin, “Lifebeat,” section D, Oct. 5, 1990 and Fred Cohen in An Evening with Madame F (1989), which was televised and presented in performance continuously for twenty-five seasons.Elaine Schmidt, “‘Madame F’ a compelling performance,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Encore,” Apr. 15, 1996Catherine Foster, "Musical drama recalls Auschwitz performers," The Boston Globe, "Critics' Picks," D6 Weekend, March 17, 2006 By the 90's, portraying Felice Bauer in Felice to Franz (1992)Clarke Bustard, “Vivid monodrama sets love affair to music,” Richmond Times Dispatch, Feb. 24, 1992, p. C3Carl Dolmetsch, “Felice to Franz,” Virginia Gazette (Williamsburg), Sept. 30, 1992Cheryl Pallant, “Love Letters,” Style Weekly (Richmond), “Theater,” p. 45, Dec. 21, 1993 and multiple characters in Playing Paradis (1994),J. Wynn Rousuck, “Playing Paradis is intense, moving drama,” The Baltimore Sun “Maryland Live,” p. 23, Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 1994.Zsofia Kaplar, “One woman, many characters, twice,” The Budapest Sun (Hungary), May 18–24, 1995 Stevens was composing both music and text. A Table Before Me (1999) Laura Stewart, “Stevens in A Table Before Me,” The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, May 9, 2000Teresa Annas, “Secret Songs,” The Virginian Pilot, “The Daily Break,” E1 and E4, March 31, 2001 and In the Puppeteer's Wake (2000), of which Baltimore Sun theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck wrote, "Claudia Stevens is a performance artist adept at using the unlikely to unearth unexpected truths," drew on Stevens's Holocaust-related family history. Dreadful Sorry, Guys (2001), one of three works published by Andrei Codrescu in his poetry journal Exquisite Corpse, dealt with hate crimes and homophobia. The Poisoner on the Train (2004) was staged by Baltimore Theater Project to commemorate the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. Blue Lias, or the Fish Lizard's Whore (2007), about fossil hunter Mary Anning, explored controversies between science and religion. Its presentations around the Charles Darwin bi-centennial included the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Flea (2008) and Pigeon (2011), about naturalist Miriam Rothschild, dealt with human-animal relations. Pitch (2012), a memoir about musical awakening; Red Currants, Black Currants (2013), about Irene Nemirovsky's last months; Teaching Moments (2015) and Fragments Shored Against Ruins (2018), about Beethoven's failed idealism, were created for Sonic Harvest in Berkeley. Andersen (2024), a one-act play for high school theatre performance, premiered in Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia, receiving many honors.
Opera librettist, 2008 to present In collaboration with composer Allen Shearer, Stevens created librettos for fourteen operas: The Dawn Makers (2008), a chamber opera in one act, of which Allan Ulrich wrote in Opera “Claudia Stevens’s libretto sings well and wavers cunningly between comedy and pathos”Allan Ulrich in Opera, July 2009, “San Francisco,” 845 A Very Large Mole (2009), a chamber opera in one act, after Kafka. Riddle Me (2010), a chamber opera for youth in one act, commissioned by Opera Theater of UC, Santa Cruz Middlemarch in Spring (2014), a chamber opera in two acts after the novel by George EliotDelia da Sousa Correa and Michael Halliwell, "Middlemarch in Spring" in George Eliot Review 2016, issue 47, September, 2016 reviewed by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle and Janos Gereben in the San Francisco Examiner who noted Stevens's adaptation for "keeping Eliot’s voice and the meandering story intact—and even enhanced—within the constraints of inevitable abbreviation and the demands of the stage.”"Middlemarch--literature's gift to opera" by Janos Gereben, San Francisco Examiner, March 20, 2015 Kosman also named Middlemarch in Spring one of the ten best Bay Area operas produced in 2015 and it was listed by Encyclopædia Britannica as a major new classical work on the world stage. Kissing Marfa (2015), a comic chamber opera in one scene based on a short story by Chekhov. Circe's Pigs (2015), a comic chamber opera in one act based on an episode from Homer's Odyssey Howards End, America (2016), a chamber opera in three acts after the novel by E. M. Forster. Referring to a preview of scenes from Act III, San Francisco Classical Voice noted that the libretto "masterfully adapts the E. M. Forster story to McCarthy-era Boston." Major notices of the opera's Feb. 22–24, 2019 premiere: San Francisco Chronicle Critic's Pick of the Week (Kosman), Los Angeles Times article, "Edwardian London is 1950's Boston and Leonard Bast is black," Operawire's extensive review calling the work "elegant, thoughtful and persuasive," citing Stevens's "eloquent lyrics" and concluding, "We need more opera at this level that is provocative, as well as satisfying," and a review in the San Francisco Examiner, "Operatic ‘Howards End, America’ a refreshing stateside spin on classic story." Jackie at Vassar (2019), a chamber opera in one act, to be premiered by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Opera Theatre Nov. 12 and 13, 2026 Prospero's Island (2021), an opera in two acts after Shakespeare's The Tempest. The opera's San Francisco premiere at Herbst Theatre on March 25, 2023 was the San Francisco Chronicle's critic's pick of the week. The work was cited by Lois Silverstein in OperaWire as "original, thought-provoking, engaging musical richness and full of ideas"; by Victor Cordell in Berkshire Fine Arts as a "score and script [that] swirl with surprises"; by Jeff Dunn in Aisle Seat Review as a "treasure chest of invention," and by Heidi de Vries (KALX) as a "brilliant update [of The Tempest]. Einstein at Princeton (2022), a chamber opera in one act with premiere in Berkeley on Dec. 5, 2023, a production of Berkeley Chamber Performances. The opera's music was praised as "delightful and accessible," with an intimacy "in a small but poignant way, demonstrating that profound matters can be distilled into small vessels." The Singer, Josephine (2023), a chamber opera in one act after Kafka premiered in Berkeley in 2024 What Aaron Copland Said (2024), a chamber opera in one act premiered in Berkeley in 2025 Leaving the White House (2026), a chamber opera in one act to be premiered in Berkeley Oct. 18, 2026 The Portal (2026)
Interviews (selected) Charles Sydnor WCVE (Richmond) broadcast (1990) Dee Perry WCPN (Cleveland) broadcast (2009)radio interview with Dee Perry on WCPN http://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-applause/story-fossil-hunter-mary-anning "Revelation, a conversation with Claudia Stevens" in Reform Judaism (2009)Aron Hirt Manheimer, editor, Reform Judaism: "Revelation, a conversation with Claudia Stevens," Reform Judaism, vol. 38, No. 2, Winter, 2009, p. 38-40, continues p. 53 Erica Miner in Broadway World, San Francisco and LA Opus, May, 2015 West Edge Opera Director Mark Streshinsky interview (Jan., 2017) of Claudia Stevens with Allen Shearer San Francisco Classical Voice interview, Feb. 9, 2019 Erica Miner in Broadway World, San Francisco, Nov. 9, 2022
Published writings “A New Look at Schumann's Impromptus" in Musical Quarterly (1981)"A New Look at Schumann's Impromptus," Musical Quarterly, vol. 67, no. 4, Fall, 1981, pp. 568-586 (author as Claudia Stevens Becker) "A Bouquet for Elliott Carter," Perspectives of New Music, (1983)"A Bouquet for Elliott Carter," Perspectives of New Music, vol. 22, nos. 1 and 2, Fall-Winter, 1983:program notes p. 8-9 for the cassette tape, Side A, "A Bouquet for Elliott Carter," Claudia Stevens, pianist "I, My Man, Only and Doll: monologues for one to four performers by Claudia Stevens" (the original title of “Dreadful Sorry, Guys”) in the online journal Exquisite Corpse (2001)Exquisite Corpse: Journal of Letters and Life, "Stage and Screen": "I, My Man, Only and Doll: monologues for one to four performers by Claudia Stevens," Issue 10, Fall/Winter, 2001-2002 http://www.corpse.org/archives/issue_10/stage_screen/stevens.htm The Poisoner on the Train in the online journal Exquisite Corpse (2003)"Claudia Stevens: 'The Poisoner on the Train.' Our fabulous playwright is back!" Exquisite Corpse: Journal of Letters and Life, "Stage": cyber issue 13, winter, 2003, http://www.corpse.org/archives/issue_12/stage_screen/index.html "A Very Large Mole: A chamber opera after Franz Kafka" in the online journal Exquisite Corpse (2010)."A Very Large Mole: A chamber opera after Franz Kafka," Libretto by Claudia Stevens for the opera by Allen Shearer, Exquisite Corpse: Journal of Letters and Life, "Scenarios", summer, 2010 http://www.corpse.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=582 "A New Opera: Middlemarch in Spring" in George Eliot-George Henry Lewes Studies (2015) "Page to Stage: A New Opera, Howards End, America" in the Polish Journal of English Studies, March 2, 2017, a special issue devoted to E.M. ForsterPolish Journal of English Studies, March. 2, 2017 http://pjes.edu.pl/start/issues/3-2-2017/ "Adela in the Cave," text of a scene from E. M. Forster's A Passage to India in the Polish Journal of English Studies, December, 2024.Polish Journal of English Studies, Oct. 2, 2024 https://pjes.edu.pl/issues/10-2-2024/
Archives Archives of Stevens’s papers and original works: Claudia Stevens Papers, 1967-continuing, Swem Library Special Collections, College of William and Mary: