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Joe Clark
Composer and arranger of jazz/jazz-like music
About Me
Joe Clark is an active composer and arranger of music in a wide
variety of styles and idioms.
Working with Dr. Cliff Colnot, Clark is an arranger for The Institute
for Learning, Access and Training at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
writing for the Once Upon a Symphony and Orchestra Explorers programs.
Joe's music has been performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Phil Woods,
Ira Sullivan, Jim McNeely, the Chicago Sinfonietta, Bob Lark and his
Alumni Big Band, the Tom Matta Big Band, Mulligan Mosaics Nonet,
DePaul University Jazz Ensemble, University of Cincinnati
CCM Jazz Lab Band, Chicago Q Ensemble, thingNY, Julia Bentley and the
Spektral Quartet, and players from the Grant Park Symphony and the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His horn arrangements can be heard on
Kanye West and Malik Yusef's “G.O.O.D. Morning G.O.O.D. Night”. Joe
has also written extensively for live theater and film, including
fruitful collaborations with director Catherine Weidner and
writer/director Kyle Higgins.
Joe's awards include multiple Union League Civic and Arts Foundation
Awards, the Sidney and Mary Kleinman Composition Award, a DownBeat
Student Music Award, and the Claire and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize
for Emerging Artists.
A native of Chicago, Joe is also a trumpeter and director of the Joe
Clark Big Band. His debut album as a leader, Lush, featuring drummer
Jeff Hamilton, will be released on Jazzed Media Records on February
12th, 2013. He is on the faculty of DePaul University and Harold
Washington College (City Colleges of Chicago).