Clark Ross is a Venezuelan-born Canadian composer and professor of composition and theory at Memorial University of Newfoundland. “Last Dance,” nominated for a 2011 Juno Award for “Classical Composition of the Year,” has been called “haunting and beautiful” by pianist Jon Kimura Parker, and was recorded on a 2010 Centrediscs CD by pianist Barbara Pritchard called Piano Atlantica, as well as on a 2000 CD (Bookends in Time) by the late Kristina Szutor, who commissioned the work. “Lamentations,” for solo cello, recorded by Vernon Regehr, won the East-Coast Award for Classical Composition.
His works have been performed in England, Ireland, Israel, Japan, the United States, and across Canada. Guitarist Daniel Bolshoy performed Ross‘s McGillicuddy’s Rant over 70 times on three continents, and released a CD of the same name in 2008. A 2012 CD by pianist Kristina Szutor, Après Scarlatti (Centaur), includes two Ross works inspired by Scarlatti, and McGillicuddy’s Rant was also featured in a 2011 CD-release by Canadian guitarist Sylvie Proulx. An avid writer, he contributed a chapter in: “Weinzweig — Essays on His Life and Music” (WLU Press, 2011), and has written over 200 posts for his Music Composition Blog. He also wrote a comprehensive manual on 16th-Century Counterpoint. Clark is the founder and former Artistic Director of the annual Newfound Music Festival, and was a founding member and later President of Toronto’s Continuum Contemporary Music.
