Claire M Singer

Claire M Singer is a composer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music, as well as a creator of films and installations. Known for her experimental approach to the organ her work draws inspiration from the dramatic landscape of her native Scotland, exploring rich harmonic textures and complex overtones that create ever-shifting melodic and rhythmic patterns disappearing almost as soon as they emerge. Her four critically acclaimed releases on Touch feature Singer playing both organ and cello, with her 2025 album “Gleann Ciùin” also featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra. The Guardian describes her music as “building from mournful softness to celestial maximalism,” while MOJO refers to her as a “pipe organ drone maestra” who evokes “the folk music of the spheres.”  Performances include Glasgow Cathedral, Tate Modern, Westerkerk in Amsterdam (where she opened for the band Low), and the Barbican (opening for Stars of the Lid). Her solo organ piece, "The Molendinar," was featured in The New York Times' "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Organ."

Awards include the Oram Award in 2017 for her innovation in sound and music and the Festival Castell de Peralada Award for best film score in 2019 (“Tell It To The Bees”). In 2020 her work “Gleann Ciùin” was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award. Recent projects include music for choreographer Robert Binet’s new ballet “Dances For The Future” for the Vienna State Ballet, which premiered in October 2025.

Singer has been Music Director of the organ at the award-winning venue Union Chapel in Islington, London since 2012. In 2016 she founded the only festival of its kind, Organ Reframed, which focuses on commissioning and presenting innovative new experimental music, which re-imagines the organ for both artist and audience. Past commissions include Craig Armstrong, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Philip Jeck, Low, Abul Mogard Éliane Radigue and Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie.

“Claire M Singer’s approach to the organ is unique... by turns hypnotic, mesmeric and euphoric in a remarkable performance ★★★★★”- The Herald

“… an extraordinary experience” - Songlines

“…building from mournful softness to celestial maximalism” - The Guardian 

“Pipe organ drone maestra finds the folk music of the spheres ★★★★” - MOJO 

“A fascinating listen from start to finish, as evocative, atmospheric and as grand as you’d expect from a record rooted in a journey through the Scottish Highlands, but it’s the sounds Singer creates from the myriad organs featured that truly mesmerise.” – The Skinny 

“…you could easily lose yourself in the mists of this record” – In Strict Tempo

“..each piece is timeless and genuinely magical” – The Quietus

“Claire M Singer really knows how to wring the best out of this magnificent instrument, creating moments of sustained rapture” - The Guardian

“5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Organ” - The New York Times

“..hovering somewhere between the Gaelic drone music of her native Scotland and the starry-eyed dream pop of This Mortal Coil” - The Times Literary Supplement

“There is a palpable sense of immanence in its deeply soothing movements, a sense of divinity flickering all around us” - Pitchfork

“Singer’s unabashed but unaffected exploitation of the organ’s potential tonal abundance is refreshing” - Dalston Sound