Award-winning stage director Claire Choquette gained national recognition in 2022 with her cult-centric concept for Salome, winner of OPERA America’s Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize. She is also the 2025–2026 recipient of the National Opera Association’s Joelyn Wakefield-Wright Stage Director Fellowship, awarded annually to an emerging director of exceptional promise.

A rising star on the American opera scene, Claire was quickly in high demand, directing eight fully staged productions in her first year as a full-time director. Her recent production of Little Women at Fort Worth Opera was praised by EarRelevant as “superior in every aspect,” while OperaGene lauded her “masterful job”  in maintaining the pacing and crafting the comedic elements of The Impresario at Opera Baltimore.

Other recent credits include Gianni Schicchi/Strawberry Fields (Oklahoma City University), Scalia/Ginsburg (Charlottesville Opera), Lucia di Lammermoor (Painted Sky Opera), La Bohème (Shreveport Opera), Dust Bowl and Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar (Verdigris Ensemble), and Siren Song and Alice Tierney (Boston University Opera Institute).

Previously, Claire has held resident assistant director positions with Wolf Trap Opera, The Dallas Opera Outreach, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Painted Sky Opera. Early in her career, she was an Assistant Professor at the Universidad Nacional del Paraguay in Asunción, where she taught acting for singers and helped facilitate the university’s opera productions.

Looking ahead, Claire’s upcoming projects include productions with the University of North Texas, Westminster Choir College, Baltimore Opera, Druid City Opera, Varna International, and a return to Painted Sky Opera in August to direct their 10th anniversary production of La Traviata.