Claire Cloud (Voice)
Claire Pellegrini Cloud, vocal and performance coach, also participates in Lagond’s summer music programs, offering a “Presentation Strategies” unit for music college-bound seniors. A native New Yorker, she was classically trained in choral singing (The Dalton School Chorus and The Radcliffe Choral Society and Madrigal Group).
She simultaneously developed a love for performing popular songs as a solo artist, accompanying herself on guitar in Wyoming and in New York City. After graduating from Harvard College in 1979, she started her first rock ‘n roll/pop band in 1981. After a brief interruption for Harvard Business School (MBA 1985) followed by a few years in investment banking, Claire returned to music to record a duet album with Jerry Lawson, lead singer of The Persuasions. It was on this project that she met Rusty Cloud. Since 1994 they have been producing original music together, and have performed at venues in New York such as Carnegie Hall (Cavalcade of Stars), Central Park SummerStage (opening for Peter Paul and Mary, Art Garfunkel), venues in Westchester and “the North Coast,” as well as toured in Europe with various bands (Brianza Blues Festival with “Blue Lou” Marini) and Russia (with Bobby “Soul Man” Harden, a lead singer for the Original Blues Brothers Band) to name a few.
Their clubdate band, Music By Cloudburst, provides jazz “combos” and larger R&B bands, personally led by Claire and Rusty, for private parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, benefits and corporate events. Claire has served on the Board of the New York City Parks Foundation for over 20 years, overseeing free concerts, dance, theater, sports and other arts programs throughout the City, and was formerly Chairman of the Board of The Diller Quaile School of Music in New York City.
