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clarabyom.bandcamp.com. For collaborative albums, please visit the links below. Stay updated! |
Projects
solo electronic project
Dan Dan & Clara
Lorris | Coons | Byom
Tara & Clara
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solo dance music
New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble
Dust City Opera
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Born In A Barn
The Klezmer Institute
The Parson Sisters
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With a fearless curiosity and multi-instrumental virtuosity (clarinet, accordion, keyboard, electronics), Clara Byom has forged a successful musical career as a versatile performer, composer, and arts administrator whose work stretches across multiple genres—from classical (new and old) to traditional folk, indie rock to electronic music.
Growing up on a family dairy farm in western Wisconsin, preschooler Byom demonstrated a keen musical interest that led to piano lessons at age five and the exploration of multiple additional instruments before settling on clarinet and piano. Her musical education expanded to include a master’s in clarinet performance and musicology.
Though her undergrad studies were focused primarily on classical music, in the summer of 2013, she subbed in a folk band on what turned out to be a life-changing whim. “That is the first time I had ever heard the word klezmer—ever,” she says. Transplanted to Albuquerque in 2014, Byom found her way into the city’s klezmer bands and its folk dance community—including contra, English country, Yiddish, and international folk—and opened a new chapter in her musical life. She found the interaction between musicians and dancers to be especially gratifying, and it fed her desire to build community through music.
That desire informs her work as board member for the Klezmer Institute, and it fuels her ongoing musicological research into New York City’s mid–twentieth century klezmer scene. Byom has also been active in Albuquerque’s new music community as cofounder (with Dalton Harris) and board member of the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble. The group, which commissions and performs new and experimental classical chamber music, released its first album, [places of transformation], in 2020.
As a classical musician, Byom has premiered over 40 works as soloist or collaborator, including works by Joshua Carro, Lauren V. Coons, Patrick Debonis, Maxwell R. Lafontant, and Paul Marquardt. As a collaborator, she most frequently performs new and experimental classical chamber music with the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble.
Byom has also found her way into unexpected spaces for a classically trained musician, including art galleries, dance halls, and bars. Her curiosity and a willingness to step outside of her comfort zone led her to join the rising indie dark-rock band Dust City Opera, tripling on clarinet, accordion, and keyboards. Accordionist Byom also teams up with fiddler Mirinisa Stewart-Tengco in the duo the Parson Sisters, playing global dance music for dancers from the Midwest to California. When the Parson Sisters landed a gig to create a techno contra event with an electronic music collaborator, Byom stepped into the breach when the collaborator withdrew, teaching herself Ableton, the sound production software, and finding new ground for her creativity.
Since 2020, Byom has presented ambitious compositional and performance projects and released multiple albums, both solo and in collaboration with the hip-hop/electronics artist Dan Dan, in a style best described as IDM, Intelligent Dance Music. “These projects feed two different parts of me,” she says. “One being the super nerdy intellectual part that is just in it to hear combinations of sounds and tones and colors and the more abstract qualities. The other part is the projects that build community and create shared experiences of joy and creativity.”
Community, joy, and creativity are what Clara Byom brings to every endeavor, whether as performer, composer, or administrator.
Written by Mel Minter.
For a complete CV, please click here.
Growing up on a family dairy farm in western Wisconsin, preschooler Byom demonstrated a keen musical interest that led to piano lessons at age five and the exploration of multiple additional instruments before settling on clarinet and piano. Her musical education expanded to include a master’s in clarinet performance and musicology.
Though her undergrad studies were focused primarily on classical music, in the summer of 2013, she subbed in a folk band on what turned out to be a life-changing whim. “That is the first time I had ever heard the word klezmer—ever,” she says. Transplanted to Albuquerque in 2014, Byom found her way into the city’s klezmer bands and its folk dance community—including contra, English country, Yiddish, and international folk—and opened a new chapter in her musical life. She found the interaction between musicians and dancers to be especially gratifying, and it fed her desire to build community through music.
That desire informs her work as board member for the Klezmer Institute, and it fuels her ongoing musicological research into New York City’s mid–twentieth century klezmer scene. Byom has also been active in Albuquerque’s new music community as cofounder (with Dalton Harris) and board member of the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble. The group, which commissions and performs new and experimental classical chamber music, released its first album, [places of transformation], in 2020.
As a classical musician, Byom has premiered over 40 works as soloist or collaborator, including works by Joshua Carro, Lauren V. Coons, Patrick Debonis, Maxwell R. Lafontant, and Paul Marquardt. As a collaborator, she most frequently performs new and experimental classical chamber music with the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble.
Byom has also found her way into unexpected spaces for a classically trained musician, including art galleries, dance halls, and bars. Her curiosity and a willingness to step outside of her comfort zone led her to join the rising indie dark-rock band Dust City Opera, tripling on clarinet, accordion, and keyboards. Accordionist Byom also teams up with fiddler Mirinisa Stewart-Tengco in the duo the Parson Sisters, playing global dance music for dancers from the Midwest to California. When the Parson Sisters landed a gig to create a techno contra event with an electronic music collaborator, Byom stepped into the breach when the collaborator withdrew, teaching herself Ableton, the sound production software, and finding new ground for her creativity.
Since 2020, Byom has presented ambitious compositional and performance projects and released multiple albums, both solo and in collaboration with the hip-hop/electronics artist Dan Dan, in a style best described as IDM, Intelligent Dance Music. “These projects feed two different parts of me,” she says. “One being the super nerdy intellectual part that is just in it to hear combinations of sounds and tones and colors and the more abstract qualities. The other part is the projects that build community and create shared experiences of joy and creativity.”
Community, joy, and creativity are what Clara Byom brings to every endeavor, whether as performer, composer, or administrator.
Written by Mel Minter.
For a complete CV, please click here.
Photos on this page from Randi Thompson, Mirinisa Stewart-Tengco, Clara Byom, and Sydney Counce.