Clare Varney is a music journalist and critic covering a wide range of musical and cultural events all over the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and the UK. She regularly writes for publications in London, Amsterdam, Madrid and her own website, The Spidy Editor. When not walking her dog, or being a mum to two teenage daughters, she also teaches English at the University of Twente and Radboud University, and bakes a lot of cakes.
Clare studied music at Cardiff and Cambridge University, travelling to London each fortnight to study the violin with Sybil Glickman (née Copeland) in Golders Green. She subsequently spent much of the ensuing 30 years playing semi-professionally in orchestras in the east of England, working with conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Daniel Harding, and the ever increasing number of incredible musicians living near Aldeburgh and Snape Maltings on the Suffolk coast.
Clare juggled playing the violin with leading successful high school Music and English departments in the UK, coaching students to find success in performances and competitions in the UK and further afield. A number of past students now have successful careers in the music industry.
Music
After moving to the Netherlands in 2020, Clare retrained at the London School of Journalism. She regularly attends concerts given by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dutch National Opera, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, and the Czech Philharmonic. Clare covers and sometimes interviews artists such as Klaus Mäkelä, Håkan Hardenberger, Elim Chan, Pavel Haas Quartet, Arod Quartet, Gustavo Dudamel, Augustin Hadelich, Vilde Frang, Vikingur Ólafsson, Lang Lang, Janine Jansen, Joshua Bell, and Daniil Trifinov. This allows Clare to gain a unique insight into current trends in classical music. She has a keen eye for what is ‘hot’ and what is ‘not’.
Clare has a keen interest in covering premieres of new and exciting compositions such as those from Thomas Adès, Mark Simpson, Jake Heggie, Mieczysław Weinberg, Andrew Norman, Lotta Wennäkoski, Gabriela Ortiz and Gavin Higgins. She also is keen to highlight the oft neglected work of British musicians’ abroad, and the work of ballet orchestras, including the brains behind new commissions. She is attuned to spotting rising talents, often tracking promising young individuals and their progress on her Instagram feed, bringing their work to the attention of a wider audience.