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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).