John Austin Clark | |
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 John Austin Clark in 2008 | |
| Born | June 26, 1982 |
| Nationality | American |
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| Labels | Centaur |
| Website | Official website  |
John Austin Clark (born 26 June 1982 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American music director and keyboardist. He plays piano and historical keyboards, including harpsichord, organ and fortepiano. He is a founder and current director of Bourbon Baroque.
Clark was born in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was a choir boy before he began taking piano lessons at the age of 7. [1] [2] He continued to study the piano during his attendance of Louisville Collegiate School. [3] As highschool freshman, he was deeply influenced by singing with the Louisville Bach Society. [4] Performing in several highschool musical productions was another defining influence. [2] He enrolled in the Kentucky Center Governor's School for the Arts Vocal Music program in 2000. [5] [6] In 2001 Clark started to explore ways of using his art to give back to the community, by asking his recital audience to donate for charity. [1] He applied to Oberlin College Conservatory of Music as a voice major, and was accepted after focusing on the harpsichord as his main instrument and received his Bachelor of Music degree in music education. [2] During his time at Oberlin he envisioned to return to Louisville to start a professional baroque group, [7] but first continued his studies in Montreal at the McGill University with Luc Beauséjour [8] and earned his Master of Music degree in harpsichord performance. [2] [5]
In 2007, Clark co-founded the early music and historically informed performance ensemble Bourbon Baroque [9] with violinist and professor of French Nicolas Fortin, who he had met at McGill. [10] Together with Fortin, Clark was artistic director for Bourbon Baroque. Their biggest productions together [11] included Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho by Telemann with Kentucky Opera in 2008, [12] Handel's Alcina in 2010, [13] Rameau's Les Sauvages from Les Indes galantes with Squallis Puppeteers in 2012, [14] and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 2015. [15] Clark moved to New York City in 2015, where he explored directing musical theatre. [2] Fortin and Clark continued working together at Bourbon Baroque till Fortin's tragic death in the fall of 2016. Shortly after, Clark briefly returned to Louisville for Handel's complete Messiah , [16] an annual performance he and Fortin had established in 2013 as a Louisville holiday tradition. [11] Clark called the Messiah a wonderful piece and a universal message of love and hope that would be therapy for him and people that were touched by Nicolas Fortin. [16] In June 2017, Clark was joined by violinist Alice Culin-Ellison as Bourbon Baroque's co-artistic director, and moved back to Louisville. [2] [17]
Clark was musical director and pianist for the 2017 production of Lucas Hnath's play The Christians in Naples, Florida. [18] In the summer of 2017, he played the organ on a studio recording of choral works by Antonio Juanas. [19] The 2018 collaboration between Bourbon Baroque and Louisville Ballet for a Mozart themed ballet production had Clark performing on fortepiano. [20] Also in 2018, Clark was music director for the Commonwealth Theatre production of the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee . [21] In 2019 Clark was music director for the musicals Cabaret directed by Seth Lieber, [22] and Pippin , directed by Remy Sisk. [23] Clark was music director of the 2020 production of La Cage aux Folles directed by Michael J. Drury. [24] During the COVID-19 pandemic in spring of 2020, Clark performed in a weekly variety show named #governmedaddy Cabaret. [7] In the summer of 2022, Clark began teaching in the musical theatre department at Youth Performing Arts School, [25] where he had previously been an accompanist.
Clark is the recipient of the 2017 Young Alumni Achievement Award [3] and a Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts spring 2017 Toyota Alumni Fund Grant, [6] which he used to apprentice with harpsichord builder Yves Beaupré. [7]
Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Kentucky borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the northeast, Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, and Missouri to the west. Its northern border is defined by the Ohio River. Its capital is Frankfort and its largest city is Louisville. As of 2020, the population was approximately 4.5 million.
Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city, although by population density, it is the 265th most dense city. Louisville is the historical county seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
duPont Manual High School is a public magnet high school located in the Old Louisville neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It serves students in grades 9–12. It is a part of the Jefferson County Public School District. DuPont Manual is recognized by the United States Department of Education as a Blue Ribbon School.
Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of the Boyle and Lincoln counties. In 2001, Danville received a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2011, Money magazine placed Danville as the fourth-best place to retire in the United States. Centre College in Danville was selected to host U.S. vice-presidential debates in 2000 and 2012.
The Frazier History Museum, previously known as the Frazier Historical Arms Museum and the Frazier International History Museum, is a Kentucky history museum located on Museum Row in the West Main District of downtown Louisville, Kentucky.
Lyndon Kent Lawless is an American musician and music educator best known for his creation and leadership of the Ars Musica period instrument chamber orchestra. He also developed and conducted the nationally known Youth Performing Arts School Philharmonia Orchestra.
Since it earliest days, the economy of Louisville, Kentucky, has been underpinned by the shipping and cargo industries. Today, Louisville is home to dozens of companies and organizations across several industrial classifications.
Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women (KCIW) is a prison located in unincorporated Shelby County, Kentucky, near Pewee Valley, Kentucky, operated by the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Male and female inmates prior to 1937 had been housed at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort
Kentucky State Reformatory (KSR) is a medium-security prison for adult males. The prison is located in unincorporated Oldham County, Kentucky, near La Grange, and about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Louisville. It opened in 1940 to replace the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort after a flood damaged the original property. The current (2020) capacity of KSR is 1053 inmates.
The John B. Castleman Monument, within the Cherokee Triangle of Louisville, Kentucky, was unveiled on November 8, 1913. The model, selected from a competition to which numerous sculptors contributed, was designed by R. Hinton Perry of New York. The statue was erected to honor John Breckinridge Castleman at a cost of $15,000 by popular subscription from city, state, and other commonwealths. The statue is made of bronze, and rests on a granite pedestal. It stands 15-feet high, with a base of 12×20 feet. The monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1997, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS. There have been attempts to remove the statue since January 2019 due to the fact that Castleman was a Major of the Confederate army. The monument was removed on June 8, 2020, and is pending cleaning and relocation to Castleman's burial site.
The culture of Kentucky is firmly Southern, it is also influenced by Southern Appalachia, blending with the native upper Southern culture in certain areas of the state. The state is known for bourbon and whiskey distilling, tobacco, horse racing, college basketball, and quilts.
The Forecastle Festival is a three-day music, art, and activism festival held annually in Louisville, Kentucky. The festival was founded in 2002 as a small gathering of local musicians in Tyler Park, and steadily grew into a national attraction that now includes major touring acts and an economic impact of over $20 million per year. Forecastle was selected as one of Rolling Stone's "Coolest Festivals" and has an annual attendance of over 75,000 fans at Louisville Waterfront Park. It attracts attendees from nearly all 50 states, 2000 cities, and a dozen international countries. Past headliners include the Black Keys, Jack White, Jack Harlow, Beck, Outkast, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Tame Impala, Tyler the Creator, Sam Smith, My Morning Jacket, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Alabama Shakes, the Flaming Lips, the Avett Brothers, Widespread Panic, Cage the Elephant and many more.
Gregory Edward Fischer is an American businessman and entrepreneur who served as the second mayor of Louisville Metro from 2011 to 2023. In 2019, he was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and in 2020, he served as its president.
Bourbon Baroque is a period instrument ensemble from Louisville, Kentucky. It specialises in historical informed performance of the music of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Louisville City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in Louisville, Kentucky. The team plays in the USL Championship, known through the 2018 season as the United Soccer League (USL), which is currently the second tier of the American soccer pyramid.
Elmer Lucille Allen is a ceramic artist and chemist who graduated from Nazareth College in 1953. Both her father and brother were named Elmer and the family chose to name her Elmer Lucille. She became the first African-American chemist at Brown-Forman in 1966.
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky on March 6, 2020, when Governor Andy Beshear's office announced the first confirmed case in Cynthiana, Kentucky, and declared a state of emergency to ensure all entities had the necessary response resources. As of January 1, 2023, 1,667,275 cumulative cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, with 17,694 deaths.
The 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2023, to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of Kentucky. Incumbent Democratic governor Andy Beshear won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
John Austin Clark (Vocal Music, 2000) will use funds toward an apprenticeship with harpsichord builder Yves Beaupré to learn the inner workings of the harpsichord and its maintenance.
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