Claire as a third grader in the musical "Annie"
Claire Anneet
Claire performing with Stanley Clarke at BroadStage
Claire Anneet performing at SMC's Voice Showcase 2023
Poster showcasing Claire's show
Promotional poster with CSUN VOVE for Claire's show at the Moroccan Lounge
Jazz vocalist Claire Anneet is still in her first weeks at the USC Thornton School of Music, and she’s already flying high and light as a feather.
That’s because a year ago, while still a student in SMC’s intensive Applied Music Program, she got the clear go-ahead sign from world-famous jazz artist Stanley Clarke in a mentoring session that was part of BroadStage’s Artist in Residence program. She later appeared in a short documentary about Clarke’s related engagements. And last spring Claire had the honor of singing the vocal part on “Light as a Feather,” Clarke’s 1973 jazz-fusion masterpiece, with the composer playing bass alongside the SMC Jazz Ensemble in a concert at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center.
None of this was planned.
“I didn’t expect SMC to bring someone like Stanley to teach us,” she says. But when the jazz legend walked in, Claire was ready to take advantage of the opportunity.
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The 23-year-old Malibu native had grown up around music.
Her mother and grandmother were both classical pianists, and Claire was named after mom’s beloved piano teacher, with a wink at her favorite piece in the repertoire, Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.”
Even her full name—Claire Anneet (pronounced “Annette”)—is homonymous with a woodwind instrument.
All these signs seemed to portend a musical destiny, but finding the right niche wasn’t so easy. From a young age, Claire was drawn to singing and piano. She briefly played her namesake clarinet in third grade, then switched to voice after a music teacher at Our Lady of Malibu School unexpectedly cast her as the lead in “Annie: The Musical.” She dove into songwriting when she got her first guitar at 11. Her singing blossomed with training, and she landed top roles in more than 20 plays and musicals at Malibu High and Santa Monica’s Young Actors Project. When it came time for college, she chose Sarah Lawrence and enrolled as a theater major. But something was missing. “I just didn’t feel like I fit in,” she says.
Claire was looking for a change when the Covid-19 pandemic brought in-person learning to a standstill in the spring of her freshman year. She came home and signed up for low-cost online courses through SMC.
First botany and piano, then guitar. Soon she was singing in the Chamber Choir and the Jazz Vocal Ensemble. When she heard about the Applied Music Program and saw that its co-director was Gina Saputo, Claire remembers thinking: “She’s amazing. I want her to be my voice teacher.”
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World music had filled Claire’s ears since childhood. Her Belgian dad is originally from Congo, and her Canadian mom had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil. At home and in the car, bossa nova, Putumayo world music, Joni Mitchell and Michael Jackson were always on repeat.
“Maybe that’s why I feel so at home in jazz,” she muses. “The music I grew up listening to are jazz descendants."
But even as she was shifting gears from Broadway to bebop, Claire wasn’t certain it was the right move.
Then one day in fall 2023, Stanley Clarke walked into her class. The five-time Grammy Award-winning bassist, recording artist and composer had come to lead a master class for a handful of selected Applied Music students. Claire sang a Billie Holiday-inspired interpretation of “Body and Soul,” by composer Johnny Green.
Clarke responded with the affirmation she craved praising her “great phrasing” and admiring her ability to “capture the song’s essence.” Claire had fretted: “Am I good for jazz? Am I respecting the tradition? Do I have a unique enough voice, ear and presence to succeed in this genre?
“And Stanley just said: ‘Yes, yes, yes. Keep going. Record it. You are where you need to be.’ He gave me all of that,” Claire says, emotionally. “It was enough to move me to tears and change my life forever.”
A film crew had recorded the session, and pulled Claire aside to do an interview. Rhythm & Harmony, created by SMC’s Media Artist Documentary Class, offers a behind-the-scenes look into Clarke’s various interactions with the community during his BroadStage artist residency. (Claire appears in the 27-minute video at the 1:55, 4:20 and 13:35 timestamps.)
Claire’s jazz history professor Keith Fiddmont further validated her artistry when he invited his former student to a rehearsal with Clarke and a few members of the SMC Jazz Ensemble. The instrumental group, which Keith directs, needed a vocalist on “Light as a Feather.” The ensemble went on to perform the piece before a live audience at The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage.
Claire had stood on that stage many times, including more than a dozen recitals with her student choirs, a guest spot in the Applied Music guitar showcase, and multiple appearances in the Applied Music vocal showcase.
But this was different. “It was his composition, dedicated to Chick Corea, with Stanley playing bass, live in concert, and I’m singing the melody. It kind of blew my mind,” she says. “And it hit me: I’m good enough to be doing this.”
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Claire brings many outside interests to her artistry.
An avid reader, she runs a web-based international book club with more than 400 members. Her favorite authors are Emily Bronte, George Orwell and Octavia Butler.
“I’m weirdly obsessed with Scottish history,” she adds.
In fact, Claire has taken so many college-level lit electives that when she submitted her paperwork to graduate from the Applied Music Program, she learned that she’d “accidentally” earned an AA in English.
“The registrar said: ‘Surprise! You got two degrees.’”
At Sarah Lawrence, she had taken classes in African politics and history, and she may keep going for a minor in Africana studies alongside her jazz studies major at USC.
But Claire’s top priority is now to grow her skill set as a performer, songwriter and arranger.
“I have two songs out already, and I’m working on my next one. By the summer, I hope to have an album in progress,” she says.
While studying at SMC, Claire had participated in VOVE, a student-run record label spearheaded by music industry majors at Cal State Northridge. “They showed us how to register with copyright services and make licensing agreements. They even held a release party for our recording.”
At USC, she’s currently taking music theory and vocal jazz elements, and getting private lessons and intensive coaching from Brazilian new bossa nova vocalist Luciana Souza.
Claire also practices and performs with the USC Thornton Vocal Jazz Ensemble, CreSCendo, and the Afro Latin-American Jazz Ensemble, ALAJE.
On Tuesday nights, she hits the jazz clubs with her friends, and on Fridays she jams with the master’s students at USC. Or they go to Sam First near LAX, where the second set is an open jam session led by Gerald Clayton, current jazz artist-in-residence at USC Thornton.
Saturday nights, Claire often makes a guest appearance with professional jazz pianist Sam Smylie in the Lobby Lounge of the Fairmont Miramar. As a resident artist in a Fairmont-BroadStage partnership, Sam is happy to give Claire a platform in his sets.
Having all these cross-town jazz connections is a great advantage, Claire knows. And while she’s jazzed to be a Trojan, Claire remains fiercely proud to be SMC.
In the runup to last month’s Future Sounds of Jazz Festival, curated by Stanley Clarke, she happily spread the word around USC.
“I love telling my new friends: ‘Look how cool my school is: Check out what’s going on at BroadStage!’ I’m very, very grateful to SMC,” she says.
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SMC in Focus Volume X, Issue 6
From SMC to MIT
SMC alumni Daniela Davalos and Les Armstrong became graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue their respective passions for safer spaceflight and fighting climate change. Read Article
Jazzed to be at USC
Serendipity and a solid thumbs-up from jazz legend Stanley Clarke helped this promising young vocalist find her place on the bandstand. Read Article
Committed Counselor
Personal reasons drive Associate Dean Jose Hernandez’ passion for ensuring that all new students are supported in their academic journey at SMC. Read Article
Doing Her Duty
Career counselor Jessica Trachtenberg is changing students’ lives at the place that changed hers, with creativity, heart, and a joyous sense of duty. Read Article
Bragging Rights
A Geology instructor makes it to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. SMC Fashion students turn unsaleable garments into treasures. A Life Science instructor helps release endangered butterflies. Read Article
Architecture’s Back!
Architecture has made a comeback at SMC, just in time to prepare Corsairs for a field that is evolving in the information age. Read Article