Biography
Kevin Clark’s theatrical music embraces opera, music-theatre and straight plays, as well as song cycles, orchestral works and pieces for acting instrumentalists. Frequently drawing on literary sources, including T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and the Anglo-Saxon poem The Seafarer, Clark’s work is strongly connected with poetry.
Currently, Kevin is Special Projects Manager at Meet The Composer, where he began as Grantwriter and Administrator after earning his MM and BM in Composition (Pi Kappa Lambda), and his BA in Philosophy (Phi Beta Kappa), from Peabody Conservatory and the Johns Hopkins University. Since coming to New York in the fall of 2008, Clark has joined Harbor Opera as a composer and development director, Evident Films as a writer and producer, and Thesia Arts a a collaborating producer.
Clark’s current principal focus is Summer’s Twilight, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream currently in development. Part opera, part play, and part music-theatre piece, Summer’s Twilight tells its story with arias and ensembles, as well as spoken dialogue, accompanied speeches, and text translated into wordless music. Following a successful reading on December 5, 2009 it is being revised by the creative team for its next reading working towards a full theatrical production.
In June 2008 Clark composed an original score and served as music director for Theatre Hopkins’ production of Mary Zimmerman’s richly musical play, The Arabian Nights. The project allowed Kevin to work with singers, actors, dancers and instrumentalists incorporating poetry, improvisation, comedy and dance. The Baltimore City Paper said, “If the belly dancing doesn’t impress you, the music will.”
Clark is co-Artistic Director with Zachary Herchen of the new music ensemble No Signal. No Signal specializes in a new music variety-show format, combining new music with avant-garde jazz, free improvisation and sketch comedy in a relaxed atmosphere. The ensemble has performed in Baltimore and New York, and produced a film adaptation of Clark’s work, The Seafarer, currently in post-production. Its members have appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brian, been awarded the Fulbright Scholarship, and gone on to join the unique ensemble Tales & Scales.
As a student at Peabody, Clark created the Junior Bach program, in which Peabody student composers teach composition lessons at an inner city middle school. The pieces written in the program are premiered by Peabody musicians for the students of both schools. Begun as a student project, the program is now a credit-granting course, awarding a scholarship to one middle school composer each year.
A finalist for the Marshall Scholarship, Clark has received awards for his composition from the Peabody Camerata, Mu Phi Epsilon and the National Federation of Music Clubs among others. His composition professors include, among others, Robert Sirota, Christopher Theofanidis, and Michael Hersch.
