Historical
Piano Concerts Series
About
the Musicians
Eric Clark
Pianist Eric Clark has performed to great acclaim
throughout much of the United States as well as in Italy, Germany and
Poland. Praising his debut performance of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka at
the International Piano Series in Charleston, South Carolina,
Charleston Today wrote: “Clark managed brilliant execution throughout,
perfectly capturing Stravinsky’s ingeniously quirky structures and
headlong rhythmic drive.”
In September of 2018, Mr. Clark was
invited as the only American contestant to attend the First
International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw,
Poland, where he was admitted to the semifinal round. He was
subsequently invited to give a recital at the Sinfonia Warsawia
performance space. During the concert seasons of 2014-2016, Eric
collaborated regularly with violinist Artur Kaganovskiy in many chamber
music concerts, performing throughout much of the east coast.
In
2014, Eric gave two performances of the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor
with the Space Coast Symphony conducted by Michael Hall, taking place
in Vero Beach and Melbourne, Florida. New York City concerts include
Rockefeller University for which Mr. Clark was selected to perform for
the screening round of the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition and the prestigious Concerts at One series at Trinity Wall
Street. The New York-based music blog Lucid Culture praised Eric’s
interpretation of Liszt’s Years of Pilgrimage: Italy, remarking, “It’s
not often that audiences get to hear the thoughtful side of Liszt:
Kudos to Clark for delivering it with grace and, if anything,
understatement.”
A fascination with Cuban music led to a trio
performance at Weill Recital Hall, sponsored by the Cuban Cultural
Center of New York. Mr. Clark’s interest in Jazz prompted a
benefit concert of his own arrangements of jazz standards with soprano
Emily Righter in Baltimore, where over $52,000 was raised for the local
homeless. Eric also performed a benefit concert at the Ahaus Castle in
Germany, which raised over $5,000 for Haiti earthquake relief efforts.
Eric Clark is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, where he
studied with Enrique Graf, Sergey Schepkin and coached occasionally
with Earl Wild and Ilana Vered. He has also had coachings with Byron
Janis, Juana Zayas, Ann Schein, and Jerome Lowenthal.
In 2012,
Eric was invited to Musicfest Perugia, where he performed Saint-Saens
Concerto No. 2 under the baton of maestro Sergei Babayan. In 2010
Eric was invited to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with
the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic conducted by Ronald Zollman as the
first-prize winner of the University’s Concerto Competition..
A
passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Clark commissioned a solo piano
work by fellow Carnegie Mellon University graduate Christian
Kriegeskotte. Entitled “Le Mat- XXII Arcana,” this ambitious work is a
cycle of twenty-two pieces, each based on one of the twenty-two “major
arcana” of the tarot. Le Mat may be currently available for download on
iTunes, Spotify, and/or Soundcloud.
Mr. Clark is also an
accomplished visual artist, whose drawings and paintings have won
awards at New Jersey arts festivals. Eric Clark currently resides in
Bergen County, New Jersey, where he maintains a studio of private
students. Eric has served as the organist at Arcola United Methodist
Church in Paramus since September of 2012, and as the pianist for
Temple Emeth in Teaneck, NJ, where he has worked since fall of 2016.
