Clara Lofaro
Clara Lofaro (born May 14, 1983)
Early Life
Clara Lofaro was born in Toronto, Ontario to Italian immigrants Giuseppe and Franca Lofaro. She is the 3rd of 4 children and has two older sisters and a younger brother. She grew up in a very Italian section of Toronto, called North York and her family held on to strict Italian Catholic values. As a child, Clara took piano lessons and was a leader with her church choir. When she was nine years old she had a poem she wrote for a school competition published. Lofaro comes from a very artistic family. Her mother is a classically trained pianist, her father acted at town playhouses and her sisters are both accomplished visual artists.
Clara attended an all-girls Catholic high school where she began to hone her skills as a performer and singer. She played the lead role of Mary Magdalene in her town adaptation of “Jesus Christ Superstar” to local acclaim. After spending a lot of time at the church with her choir group and continuing her expanding knowledge of modern music, Clara knew that she wanted to pursue a career as a performer and immediately after high school was accepted to the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Berklee Years
Clara left her home and all of her family in Toronto to pursue her music career full-time in Boston at the Berklee College of Music. Growing up, Clara’s family had only let her listen to church music and the oldies station so here she was exposed to Jazz for the first time. She took on a very full workload in order to graduate with a degree in professional music in 3 years while completely engulfing herself in the local Boston Jazz scene. She formed her first group the Clara Lofaro Quartet and performed in Jazz clubs around the city covering jazz standards.
There, musicians, producers and film composers sought after her deeply powerful vocals, songwriting ability, and charismatic personality. She wrote songs and lyrics in various styles ranging from jazz to pop to jingles. Clara was a desired vocalist for session work, and played the Boston club scene with musicians like Rie Tsuji (keys, Beyonce), Mathias Kunzli (percussion, Lauryn Hill) and John Shannon (guitar, Sonya Kitchell).
Then she met Marko Djordjevic who is a very well-known drummer and he exposed her to the New York City underground music scene. She knew she wanted to leave Boston for New York as soon as possible and so Clara ended up graduating with a full degree in just 2 ½ years. In her final year at Berklee, Clara teamed up with producer Barry Marshall on her album Night Light. The album was well received in the Jazz community and led her to a packed performance in front of her hometown of Toronto soon after her graduation.
Black + Blue Pearl
Lofaro began taking the music world by storm with Black + Blue Pearl, which was released under her own independent record label, ComeTrue Records. It wasn’t long before the New York City indie music scene started to recognize her talents through performances at renowned NYC clubs, the Living Room, CBGB, Knitting Factory, and the Cutting Room. Subsequently, the album became a top seller on CD Baby. The album picked up radio airplay on New York's WLIR and college stations throughout the Northeast, while 106 VIC radio in Ithaca, NY, named the track, "One True Thing" 2006 Song of the Year.
The success of BBP brought Lofaro to side stage acoustic performances with Stevie Nicks and OAR at Jones Beach on Long Island, and the Bamboozle Festival at Giants Stadium. Audience voted Lofaro second favorite at a Fresh 102.7 outdoor concert featuring Edwin McCain, Kimberly Locke and others.
That October, Lofaro returned to Toronto for the Indie Music Competition, Indie Week. She wound up beating over 450 entrants to take top honors as the city's best unsigned talent. It was then that she felt her name and label had picked up enough momentum to begin working on a follow-up album.
Perfekt World
She subsequently returned to the studio with producer Mark Turrigiano (Ingrid Michaelson’s Boys and Girls) to create Perfekt World, an album combining the best of both worlds; the old and the new, on every song, regardless of style.
The success of Perfekt World opened many eyes and ears across the music industry and led to opening spots on sold-out shows for Duncan Sheik, Anna Nalick, Jeffrey Gaines, and Emerson Hart in 2008 alone, as well as an in-studio performance on New York City’s Fresh 102.7FM, where she performed an acoustic version of Rihanna’s Don’t Stop the Music. It was played in regular rotation on their program, Acoustic Sunrise.
It also led to a partnership with the top-rated famine relief organization, Action Against Hunger, for whom Lofaro has become an active voice in helping generate awareness and money to fight extreme poverty all over the world. Clara donates 20% of her album sales to the cause and has performed at many of AAH’s charitable functions.
Other Notable Work
In the years 2006 and 2007, Clara was the voice of Disney’s famous “What’s Next” Commercial airing every year after the Super Bowl giving her rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star. In 2008, Clara’s album Perfekt World received 6 Toronto Independent Music Awards. In 2009, Clara teamed up with Sidney Mills (Boogie Down Productions, Steel Pulse) and world-beat reggae sensation Denison George to release “Love You More.” In 2010, Clara performed at the legendary Blue Note in NYC to a packed audience debuting songs for her upcoming 2010 release.
Currently, Clara is working with producer Anthony J. Resta (Duran Duran, Elton John) on tracks for her upcoming self-titled album due out in 2010. Anthony has played in instrumental part in helping launch the careers of Shawn Mullins and Collective Soul. In addition, Robert Smith has signed on as the primary engineer for this album and he lists Billy Joel, the Jonas Brothers and Aerosmith to his credit. Clara will be releasing her new single Just Smile, with an accompanying music video, directed by Chris McGuiness of Pulse Cineman, Inc.
Websites:
www.claralofaro.com
www.myspace.com/claralofaro
http://www.billboard.com/artist/clara-lofaro/849202#/artist/clara-lofaro/849202
References:
http://www.uncensoredinterview.com/artists/clara-lofaro
http://www.indiesolo.com/artists/Clara_Lofaro/
http://bopnique.com/clara-lofaro-billboard-bio
http://www.theinsider.com/news/1016525_CLARA_LOFARO_S_NEW_CD_AT_CUTTING_ROOM
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6kl2p_clara-lofaro-feat-action-against-hu_music
http://www.neonlounge.com/interviews/clara-lofaro.php
http://www.bigdplace.com/ClaraLofaro.html
http://www.eardrumnyc.com/artist/4731-clara-lofaro
http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/entertainment/article/12790--indie-week-win-propels-clara-lofaro
http://www.life.com/image/82289324
http://fyimusic.ca/tag/clara-lofaro
http://www.berklee.edu/bt/183/alumnotes.html
http://www.timessquaregossip.com/2008_05_01_archive.html
http://www.claralofaro.com/press/Aquarian_7.30.08.pdf
http://www.claralofaro.com/site_old/images/_clippings/0522CL.jpg
http://www.claralofaro.com/press/moosejaw_6_20_08.pdf
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycp46z4Ivqo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYQINPdjOxo
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