We are deeply saddened by the loss of Claire van Kampen, who died on 18 January 2025, at the age of 71.

From the opening of the Globe, she served as Founding Director of Music from 1996-2006, and as Artistic Associate alongside her husband and creative collaborator, Sir Mark Rylance (Founding Artistic Director). She remained at the Globe as Early Music Associate and Senior Research Fellow. She was musical consultant and resident composer from 2007-2015. She continued to compose, write, and direct at the Globe, and was a member of the Creative Council.

Claire created the founding vision for Early Music in Shakespearean performance at the Globe. Under her leadership, the Globe became one of the only theatres in the world where early music and early musical instruments were standard practice. Music scholars across the world discovered more about musical conventions in Shakespeare’s original theatres because of Claire.

Since 1996, she composed music for 47 Globe productions, most recently for Kathryn Hunter’s King Lear in 2022. Claire made her debut as Director with Othello (2018) at the Globe, and wrote the multi-award winning Farinelli and The King (premiered 2015) which was nominated for 6 Olivier and 5 Tony Awards including Best Play.

Her impact, not only at the Globe but within the music and theatre industries, is immeasurable. She will be greatly missed by so many.

Our thoughts and love are with Mark, and her daughter, Juliet, and all of Claire’s friends and family.

‘Claire, beloved Claire, was one of the principal creators of the Globe. With her beautiful music, her theatrical nous, and her shining spirit, she quite simply taught the Globe what it wanted to be. The energy that has poured from that theatre for thirty years is the energy of over a million collaborators, including its wonderful audiences, but primus inter pares is the sun that was Claire Van Kampen’.

Dominic Dromgoole – Globe Artistic Director 2006 – 2016

Read Dominic’s tribute to Claire in the Guardian here.

Claire van Kampen was a rare human being, a unique talent and a true artist, who dedicated her life to making music and telling stories. Claire was also a friend, a mentor, a mother, a wife and one of the strongest and most formidable women you could ever meet.

If music be the food of love, play on.

May you play on in peace Claire, with love and gratitude from me, and all of us at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Michelle Terry – Globe Artistic Director

Claire was a pillar of the Globe; she put her entire spirit and heart into every composition, director’s note, and word she wrote and into the very fabric of the Globe’s architecture. It is no understatement to say she may have loved the Globe more than any of us. She was an artist, a scholar, and a pioneer in early music. And my god she knew her Shakespeare. The Globe is blessed to have had her teachings and those of us who were fortunate enough to know and love her, bereft as we feel, know we are richer for having been in her orbit.

Professor Farah Karim-Cooper – Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library
(previously Director of Education at Shakespeare’s Globe, following a 20 year Globe career)

Claire was the epitome of warmth and kindness, and I experienced this when I first arrived to take on the role of Chair at the Globe. I was very much in awe of her immense talent and huge range of skills but the warmth of her personality and the extent of her humility made it really easy to speak with her without being overawed. It was incredibly exciting to see productions that she’d worked on with her husband Mark Rylance. She was formidable and has left a fantastic legacy of brilliant productions as well as through her philanthropic work. She will be greatly missed.

Margaret Casely-Hayford – Chair of Shakespeare’s Globe 2018 – 2024