Clark Ross

Professor
Composition and Theory

B. A. (Toronto)
M. Mus. (Toronto)
Mus. Doc. (Toronto)
A. R. C. T. (Composition) R. C. M.

clark@mun.ca
Room: MU-2008
864-7484
www.clarkross.ca

Clark Ross’s music was nominated for a 2011 Juno award and has been performed in Japan, Israel, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United States, and across Canada.  He won Young Composer's Awards in competitions by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and has had numerous commission grants from the CBC, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, and Canada Council.  He founded and was Artistic Director of the Newfound Music Festival for nine years, and was a founding member and former President of Continuum, the Toronto new-music ensemble.

Guitarist Daniel Bolshoy has performed Ross's McGillicuddy's Rant over 70 times around the world, and released a CD of the same name in 2008. McGillicuddy's Rant was also recorded on a 2010 CD by Canadian guitarist Sylvie Proulx, Sirocco (Centaur).  Ross’s Last Dance was released on CDs by pianists Barbara Pritchard (Piano Atlantica, Centrediscs, 2010), and Kristina Szutor (Bookends in Time, 2000), and has been played by Ang Li in many venues across North America, including Carnegie Hall. Kristina Szutor's 2012 CD, Après Scarlatti (Centaur), includes two Ross works, Domenico 1° & 2°, and cellist Vernon Regehr recorded Ross's Lamentations on Full Spectrum (Centrediscs, 2012).  Ross has also written a chapter on John Weinzweig's instrumental music in "Weinzweig: Essays on His Life and Music" (WLU Press, 2010), and writes regularly for his composition pedagogy blog, named in 2011 as among “The Fifty Best Blogs for Music Theory Students” by MatchACollege.com.

He was awarded Memorial University’s President's Award for Outstanding Research in 1999, was Visiting Composer at Wheaton College, Illinois (2007), Composer-in-Residence at Ireland's Waterford New Music Week (2003), and served on the national boards of the Canadian Music Centre, the Canadian New Music Network, and the Canadian League of Composers, where he was secretary of National Council and editor of the CLC Bulletin. He performs occasionally as a classical or jazz guitarist.

Clark Ross was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and has also lived in Caracas (Venezuela), Lima (Peru), Lennoxville (Quebec), New York City, Fort Lee (New Jersey), Brussels (Belgium), and Toronto. He is married to Dr. Jennifer Porter (professor of Religious Studies, Memorial University), and has three children (Alexander, (b. 2004), Andrew (b. 2001), and Julia (b. 1990).