Contact Information
Name: Claire Thompson
Title: Lecturer in Music
Email: c.thompson@csus.edu
Education : Ph.D., UC Davis
Courses Taught : Music History
Profile
Get to Know Me!
1. What is your favorite style of music? Favorite piece of music?
I have mostly listened to classical music ever since I was a child, which admittedly baffled my parents growing up. I did not get that from them! That remains true today, although my tastes have expanded significantly since then, and it is hardly the only kind of music I enjoy. It can be hard to pick a favorite, as I am always discovering new music to be excited about. My relationship to individual pieces and composers also changes over time. One of my oldest musical friends, however, has been Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, which I was first introduced to in elementary school and have loved ever since. They also are what led me to the wider world of opera, which is one of my main research interests to this day.
2. What has surprised you most about your career in music? How have your musical aspirations changed over time?
Part of what has surprised me the most is just how large the field is, and how many options are open to you. Deciding on music was a start, rather than an endpoint. I was torn for many years, not about pursuing music itself—that never seemed like it was in question—but about what that meant for me. What did I want out of music? Did I want to focus on performing? Teaching? Conducting? Eventually, I realized the particular joy I had for music research and took that route, although that has not cut me off from performing completely. But you do not always need to only pick one option, and I have seen many artists whose focuses change at various points in their life.
3. What else do you do besides music?
My twin obsessions have always been music and the fiber arts. When not doing music, I am often knitting, spinning, weaving, or sewing. I also find working with yarn and fiber a good meditative activity while actively getting to know a piece. In recent years, I have also been building a small container garden of California native plants.
Professional Bio
Claire Thompson is a musicologist and flutist. She has a PhD in Musicology from UC Davis, an MA in Musicology from Penn State, and a BM in flute from UC Santa Barbara. Her dissertation examines the reception history of Rossini’s opera La donna del lago through published sheet-music arrangements of the opera’s ‘hit tunes,’ showing how the arrangement industry influenced operatic performance and composition. Her research has been supported by the Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellowship, and she has presented her work at meetings for the American Musicological Society. Her current research interests include nineteenth-century opera, music publishing and arranging, and film music.