Clark Ross
Guitar, Composition, Theory, Orchestration, Electronic Music
B.A. Toronto
M.Mus. Toronto
Mus.Doc. Toronto
A R C T
Web: www.clarkross.ca
Clark Winslow Ross’s compositions have been performed in Japan, Israel, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United States, and across Canada. He won Young Composer's Awards in national competitions by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and has received numerous commission grants from the CBC, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, and the Canada Council. Guitarist Daniel Bolshoy has performed Ross's McGillicuddy's Rant over 70 times in North America and around the world, and released a CD of the same name in 2008. Ross’s "Last Dance" was released in, 2010 on a Canadian Music Centre Centrediscs CD by pianist Barbara Pritchard called Piano Atlantica, and had previously been released on a CD by pianist Kristina Szutor called Bookends in Time. A forthcoming CD by Kristina Szutor, Après Scarlatti, will include two newly-composed Ross works, and McGillicuddy's Rant was also featured in a 2010 CD-release by Canadian guitarist Sylvie Proulx called Sirocco, on the Centaur label. He has also written a chapter for a December, 2010, book on the music of John Weinzweig. Clark is the founder and Artistic Director of the annual Newfound Music Festival, and was a founding member and later President of Toronto-based Continuum Contemporary Music.
Clark Ross is Associate Professor of composition, theory, and electronic music, and previously taught at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of Toronto, and McMaster University. He was awarded Memorial University’s President's Award for Outstanding Research (1999) in recognition of his extensive compositional activities. Ross was Visiting Composer at Wheaton College, Illinois (2007), Composer-in-Residence at Ireland's Waterford New Music Week (2003), and has served on the national boards of the Canadian Music Centre, the Canadian New Music Network, and the Canadian League of Composers, where he is was secretary of National Council and editor of the CLC Bulletin. He also performs occasionally as a classical or jazz guitarist.
Born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Clark was raised there and in Caracas (Venezuela), Lima (Peru), Lennoxville (Quebec), New York City, Fort Lee (New Jersey), Brussels (Belgium), and Toronto. He is married to Dr. Jennifer Porter (professor of Religious Studies, Memorial University), and has three children (Alexander, (b. 2004), Andrew (b. 2001), and Julia (b. 1990).
