Born in Lille into a family of musicians, Clara Bellegarde studied the harp with Anne Le Roy before obtaining the Diplôme National Supérieur Professionnel de Musicien (DNSPM) at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in Isabelle Moretti’s class. She went on to complete a Master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt under Françoise Verherve. Her first orchestral experiences with the Orchestre Français des Jeunes and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester marked the start of her professional career.
In 2015, at the age of 23, she was appointed principal harpist of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. She is regularly invited to perform with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris.
She performs on the world’s leading international stages, under the baton of Charles Dutoit, Tugan Sokhiev, Kent Nagano, Philippe Jordan, Teodor Currentzis, Antonio Pappano, Paavo Järvi and Pablo Heras-Casado. In January 2017, she took part in the inaugural concert at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
Alongside her orchestral work, Clara Bellegarde pursues a career as a soloist and chamber musician. In December 2024, she premiered Camille Pépin’s concerto for flute and harp, Ce que raconte le vent…, conducted by Kent Nagano at the Elbphilharmonie. She has also performed at several international festivals, including the Forest Hill Musical Days in San Francisco, the Norsjø Kammermusikfest in Norway, the Tra Luce e Sogno festival in Italy and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and has collaborated with artists such as Mari and Momo Kodama, Xavier de Maistre, Matt Haimovitz, Veronika Eberle and Edicson Ruiz.
After serving for eleven years as principal harpist with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Clara Bellegarde joined the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in August 2026 as principal harpist.