Keith Clark (conductor)

Last updated

Keith Clark is an American composer, conductor, and music educator who is best known for founding the Pacific Symphony and the Astoria Music Festival. Active globally as a conductor, he has an extensive discography with symphonies internationally, including the London Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Slovak State Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony among others. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Siberian Chamber Orchestra in Omsk, Russia, Principle Conductor of the Amadeus Opera Ensemble in Salzburg, Artistic Director of Portland Summerfest’s Opera in the Park, and Artistic Director of the Astoria Music Festival.

Contents

Early life, family, and education

Born in Illinois, Clark grew up in Ottawa, Illinois in a century-old farmhouse just southwest of Chicago. [1] [2] Clark's father, also named Keith, was a high school teacher and folk singer and instrumentalist who travelled around the midwest collecting folk songs, much in the way that Bartok and Kodaly had done earlier. His father was a close friend of Pete Seeger, whom he met in New York City while making recordings for Folkway Records. They later attended classes at Harvard University together, including a class taught by the poet Robert Frost, played on the same softball team, and spent time together with the author Truman Capote. [2] His father sometimes played as a member in Seeger’s band.

Clark’s father turned the family’s large barn into a theater that seated several hundred people for public performances. The theater became a popular stopping place for many of the great American folk musicians in the 1950s and 1960s , including Seeger, during the American folk music revival, and was also used as a venue for artists who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era or to non-white entertainers who were discriminated from performing prior to the Civil Rights Act. [2]

He displayed an early talent for composing music, and published his first piece at the age of 18. At the age of 19 he became Roger Wagner's assistant, serving as accompanist to the Roger Wagner Chorale while an undergraduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles. During this time he lived with composer Roy Harris from whom he rented a room. [1]

While working with Wagner, Clark had the opportunity to work with Zubin Mehta. Mehta convinced Clark to take a year studying music in Europe, and then come back to UCLA and study with him. Taking his advice and utilizing Mehta's connections, he studied music composition and conducting with Franco Ferrara in Sienna and Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. He then decided to remain in Europe to complete his undergraduate studies in music composition and conducting at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana where he earned diplomas in both subjects and was awarded the schools' Conducting Prize. He later pursued graduate studies at the Vienna Music Academy (now the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) as a Fulbright Scholar, and returned to UCLA where he earned his Doctorate in music theory. [1]

Career

Clark began his career in the 1960s in Europe, working chiefly out of Austria, but also serving as guest conductor with symphonies throughout Europe, including the London Philharmonic. [3] He was particularly active in Vienna during the 1970s; having several of his own operas performed at the Vienna Festival during that decade, serving as Assistant Conductor of the World Youth Orchestra in Vienna under Leonard Bernstein, and working as Principal Guest Conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. With that orchestra he conducted numerous concerts, made several radio and television broadcasts in Vienna and abroad for BBC, and made several recordings.

In 1978, Clark became director of orchestras and opera conductor at California State University in Fullerton, California. [3] There he established the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, the precursor to the Pacific Symphony, as a part-student, part-professional, part-community ensemble during his first year of teaching [4] Under his leadership, the orchestra soon became a fully professional orchestra with a subscription season and a subscriber base of more than three thousand people. In 1988 he resigned from his post, after being forced out by the orchestra's board of directors. [5]

In 2003 Clark co-founded the Astoria Music Festival in Astoria, Oregon with soprano Ruth Dobson, and has served as the Artistic Director of the festival from 2003 until the present. In 2006 he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Siberian State Philharmonic and was appointed Artistic Director of the Novosibirsk Globus Theatre where he notably staged the Russian premiere of Bernstein's West Side Story in 2007. He later conducted the Moscow premiere of the musical in 2010. [6]

Clark has also worked as a guest conductor with many orchestras and ensembles during his career, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra. [7] He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Siberian Chamber Orchestra in Omsk, Russia, Principle Conductor of the Amadeus Opera Ensemble in Salzburg, Artistic Director of Portland Summerfest’s Opera in the Park, and Artistic Director of the Astoria Music Festival. [8]

Discography

year [9] titlesoloist(s)conductor,
orchestra		studiorecord label
1981 Harris: Symphony No. 6 "Gettysburg"Keith Clark,
Pacific Symphony Orchestra 		studio;
March 7, 1981		 Varèse Sarabande VCD 47245
1984Menotti / Barber: Violin Concertos Ruggiero Ricci, violinKeith Clark,
Pacific Symphony Orchestra		studioVarèse Sarabande VCD 47239
1985Respighi: Church Windows; Poema AutunnaleRuggiero Ricci, violinKeith Clark,
Pacific Symphony Orchestra		studioReference Recordings
1985Copland: Appalchian Spring Suite; Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson Marni Nixon, sopranoKeith Clark,
Pacific Symphony Orchestra		studio;
Feb. 23, 1985		Varèse Sarabande VCD 47245; later on Reference Recordings
1986 Nanes: Symphony No. 1 "Atlantis, the Sunken City"; Symphony No. 2 "The False Benediction"Christopher Bouver-Broadbent, organKeith Clark,
London Philharmonic Orchestra 		Abbey Road Studios Delfon Recording Society
1987 Glière: Symphony No. 2; The Zaporozhian CossacksKeith Clark,
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra 		Bratislava studio;
Nov. 19-29		Marco Polo
1988Mendelssohn / Bruch: Violin ConcertosMariko Honda, violinKeith Clark,
Slovak Philharmonic 		Concert Hall of the Slovak Philharmonic;
April 11-16		 Naxos
1988Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto; Sérénade mélancolique; Souvenir d’un lieu cherMariko Honda, violinKeith Clark,
Slovak Philharmonic,
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra		studioNaxos
1988French FestivalKeith Clark,
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra		studioNaxos

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudio Abbado</span> Italian conductor (1933–2014)

Claudio Abbado was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, founder and director of Lucerne Festival Orchestra, founder and director of Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founding Artistic Director of Orchestra Mozart and music director of European Union Youth Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zubin Mehta</span> Indian conductor

Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonidas Kavakos</span> Greek violin virtuoso and conductor

Leonidas Kavakos is a Greek violinist and conductor. As a violinist, he has won prizes at several international violin competitions, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation scholar. He has also recorded for record labels such as Sony/BMG and BIS. As a conductor, he was an artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and has been a guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The Pacific Symphony is a symphony orchestra based in Orange County, California. The orchestra performs at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall as a part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. From 1987 to 2016, the orchestra's Summer Festival concerts took place at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Irvine, California.

Uroš Lajovic is a Slovenian conductor. He has served as guest conductor, permanent conductor, artistic director and artistic advisor at numerous prominent European orchestras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingo Metzmacher</span> German conductor

Ingo Metzmacher is a German conductor and artistic director of the festival KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Hilgers</span> German tuba player and conductor (born 1959)

Walter Hilgers is a German tuba player and conductor. He performs worldwide as orchestral musician, soloist, academic music teacher, arranger and conductor.

Gregory Vajda is a Hungarian clarinetist, composer and conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Enescu Festival</span> Classical music festival in Romania

The George Enescu Festival, held in honor of the celebrated Romanian composer George Enescu, is the biggest classical music festival and classical international competition held in Romania and one of the biggest in Eastern Europe. Enescu's close associate George Georgescu organized the first festival in 1958; highlights included a performance of Bach's Concerto for Two Violins with Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh as soloists and a staging of Enescu's sole opera, Œdipe, with Constantin Silvestri conducting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Morgan (conductor)</span> American conductor (1957–2021)

Michael DeVard Morgan was an American conductor. He was music director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony for 30 years. He was also music director of the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra and artistic director of Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, California.

Dmitry Yulianovich Sitkovetsky is a Soviet and American violinist, conductor, and arranger.

Paul Hostetter is an American conductor, the Ethel Foley Distinguished Chair in Orchestral Activities for the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, the Conductor and Artistic Advisor for the Sequitur Ensemble, and the Founder and Artistic Adviser to the Music Mondays chamber series in New York City. He has held appointments as the Director of the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University where he also was the Director of Orchestral Studies/Associate Professor, the Music Director of the Colonial Symphony, the Music Director of the High Mountain Symphony, Artistic Director of the Winter Sun Music Festival, Music Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, and the Associate Conductor for the Broadway productions of Candide and George and Ira Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm.

Bruno Weil is a German symphonic conductor. He is principal guest conductor of Tafelmusik, the period-instrument group based in Toronto, Music Director of the Carmel Bach Festival in California, and artistic director of the period-instrument festival "Klang und Raum" in Irsee, Bavaria. He has served as General Music Director of Augsburg (1981–1989), and of Duisburg (1989–2002). He currently serves as Professor of Conducting at the State Academy for Music and Theater in Munich.

Ariel Zuckermann is an Israeli conductor, since 2015 director and conductor of the Israel Chamber Orchestra.

Andrew Keith Wailes is an Australian conductor and music director. Winner of the Australasian International Choral Conducting Competition in Brisbane in 1999, he is the current artistic director and Chief Conductor of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Melbourne University Choral Society, and music director and Conductor of the Box Hill Chorale. From 1999 to 2020 he served as artistic director of The Australian Children's Choir, and for a decade was Director of the Australian Catholic University Melbourne Campus Choir. He is a former president of the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association, and is a former Artistic Administrator and artistic director of The Chamber Strings of Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Ponti (conductor)</span> Italian orchestral conductor (born 1968)

Carlo Ponti Jr. is an Italian orchestral conductor working in the United States. He is the son of late film producer Carlo Ponti Sr. and Italian actress Sophia Loren, and the older brother of film director Edoardo Ponti.

Gustav Meier was a Swiss-born conductor and director of the Orchestra Conducting Program at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He was also Music Director of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, for more than 40 years (1972–2013).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yaacov Bergman</span> Israeli-born conductor (1945–2023)

Yaacov Bergman was an Israeli-born conductor. He was the musical director and conductor of the Walla Walla Symphony from 1987 until his death, conductor of the Portland Chamber Orchestra, and artistic director of the Siletz Bay Music Festival in Oregon. He conducted as a guest worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black conductors</span>

Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.

Claudius Traunfellner is an Austrian conductor.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Byron de Arakal (September 1986). "Conductor Keith Clark Knows Sacrifice and Success". Orange Coast Magazine .
  2. 1 2 3 Patrick Webb (April 28, 2019). "Pete Seeger: Young Keith Clark didn't know he was a famous musician". Coast Weekend .
  3. 1 2 "Here and There". High Fidelity . Vol. 28, no. 7–12. 1978. p. 63.
  4. ↑ Randy Lewis (February 28, 1988). "Conductor Ponders His Future : Clark's Orchestral Dream Becomes a Discord". Los Angeles Times .
  5. ↑ Allan Jalon (June 19, 1988). "KEITH CLARK : Ousted Conductor of Pacific Symphony Talks About His Rise, Fall and Future". Los Angeles Times .
  6. ↑ "New 'West Side Story' Debuts in Moscow". The Moscow Times . June 30, 2010.
  7. ↑ "8/1/1974". Boston Symphony Orchestra Performance Archives. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  8. ↑ "FREE OUTDOOR OPERA EXPECTED TO DRAW RECORD CROWDS". Oregon Jewish Life. July 12, 2019.
  9. ↑ In most cases the date given is for the most recent release, not necessarily the actual year of recording.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.