About us

Andrew Clark has been recognized by Chorus America as one of our country's most promising young conductors. In his fifth year as Director of Choral Activities at Tufts University (Medford, MA), Clark also serves as the Artistic Director of the Providence Singers and Music Director of the Worcester Chorus, two of the largest and most celebrated choral arts organizations in New England.

Under his leadership, the Providence Singers were selected by the National Endowment for the Arts to host one of seven major choral festivals celebrating American Masterpieces in March 2007. The festival featured the first performance in over twenty years of Lukas Foss's cantata The Prairie (1944), reintroducing a treasure of the American choral legacy. A studio recording of the work, under Clark's direction, will be released in 2008.

Clark has conducted numerous major works with orchestra including Mendelssohn's ELIJAH, the Poulenc GLORIA, the Bach B-MINOR MASS, Handel's MESSIAH, Mozart REQUIEM, and works by Britten, Schütz, Brahms, Haydn, Stravinsky, Schubert, Faure, Vaughan Williams and others. A champion of the music of our time, Clark has commissioned numerous composers and presented over twenty world premieres as well as many other performances of important contemporary works.

Recent performances including his May 2005 Carnegie Hall conducting debut and appearance on NBC's TODAY show and Lincoln Center debut preparing the Providence Singers for the world premiere of jazz legend Dave Brubeck's "The Commandments". Clark has collaborated with prestigious organizations including the Kronos Quartet, Boston Pops, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, Newport Baroque Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Opera Boston, and the Newport Jazz Festival among others.

A supporter and advocate for music education, Clark serves as a distinguished faculty member of the "Notes from the Heart" Music Camp in Pittsburgh, a summer music program for children with disabilities and chronic illness supported by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Woodlands Foundation. He was the founding Music Director of the Junior Providence Singers, a high school choral education ensemble sponsored by the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School and Providence Singers.

Clark received degrees from Wake Forest and Carnegie Mellon Universities, having studied with Grammy-award winning conductor Robert Page, as well as Jameson Marvin, Dale Warland, Vance George, Brian Gorelick, David Effron, Gunther Schuller, William Weinert and others. He previously served on the conducting staff of Harvard and Clark Universities and as assistant conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and the Boston Pops Holiday Chorus. He is a member of the national music honor society, Pi Kappa Lambda.

For more information: www.andrewclarkconductor.com

 

The Blackstone Valley Chorale brings together members of the Providence (RI) Singers and the Worcester (MA) Chorus, two of New England's largest and most celebrated choral arts organizations, both conducted by Andrew Clark, Director of Choral Music at Tufts University. The ensemble takes its name from the Blackstone River connecting Worcester and Providence, known as the birthplace of the American industrial revolution. The rich heritage of the river and its communities uniquely chronicle America's history -- culturally, socially and economically. The Blackstone Valley Chorale conveys this story through American choral music, old and new.

The Providence Singers celebrates the choral art through concerts of masterworks and contemporary works, creative collaborations, new music commissions, and education programs. The 100-voice chorus is noted for its wonderful vocal blend, and impeccable phrasing (Providence Journal). The ensemble's guest appearance with Dave Brubeck at the 2004 Newport Jazz Festival was hailed by Mr. Brubeck as "the best performance yet" of his cantata, Gates of Justice; at the composers invitation, the Providence Singers premiered The Ten Commandments at Lincoln Center in 2005. Other guest appearances and collaborations include Terry Riley's Sun Rings with the Kronos Quartet, annual concerts with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and performances with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Newport Baroque Orchestra, and Boston Landmarks Orchestra.

In 2007, the National Endowment for the Arts selected the Providence Singers to host one of seven American Masterpieces Choral Festivals nationwide. Additional NEA support is enabling the Singers to professionally record and produce a CD of The Prairie, Lukas Foss's career-launching cantata, and an educational DVD to support choral programs in our schools. The Providence Singers commissions new works with support of its Wachner Fund for New Music, established to commemorate Julian Wachner's decade as artistic director. The Singers also offers intensive choral education programs for 4th-12th grade students, in partnership with the Rhode Island Philharmonic.

The Worcester Chorus, under the sponsorship of Music Worcester Inc., has the unique distinction of being one of the most longstanding choral groups in the United States; it was founded in 1858 for to perform in the first annual Worcester Music Festival held in the newly built Mechanics Hall. During its rich history, Worcester Chorus has premiered works by renowned composers, including Anton Dvorak and Ralph Vaughan-Williams.
More recently, the Chorus has performed with a variety symphony orchestras, including appearances with the Prague Symphony in Carnegie Hall (1985), the Hartford Symphony (1994) and, most recently (2006), a performance of the Verdi Requiem with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.
The Chorus traditionally performs four concerts each year as part of the Worcester Music Festival, including Handel's Messiah in December. Its repertoire includes the world's finest choral masterpieces, as well as works by contemporary composers and arrangements of American folk songs and classics from the musical theater.