She had a sound education, started in São Paulo with José Kliass, that in turn studied in Berlin with Martin Krause, a Liszt pupil.
She did improvement studies with Leonard Shure, an assistant to Artur Schnabel, and then at the Mannes College of Music, in New York City.
While still a teenager, she won the International Wilhelm Backhaus Competition, starting a career that made her one of the most prestigious Brazilian virtuosi.
Clara Sverner recorded several pieces for piano by Chiquinha Gonzaga, and thus was responsible for attracting the attention of the public to her works.
Ms Sverner's fruitful partnership with the Brazilian instrumentalist Paulo Moura was opened up to several musical universes, exploring works from the Brazilian popular music (like Pixinguinha), to contemporary classical composers like Almeida Prado, Gilberto Mendes, and Ronaldo Miranda, that created pieces specifically for the Sverner and Moura duo.