John Austin Clark

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]

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]

• Antonio Juanas: Premiere Recordings of Selected Choral Works; Collegium Mundi Novi, Variant 6, Conductor: R. Ryan Endris, Organist: John Austin Clark[19] (Centaur/Naxos, 2017, CRC 3663)[3]

• Official website