Portrait of an Artist: Andrew G. Clark

Andrew G. Clark is the director of the Holden Choir Program, the oldest collegiate choral program in the United States. He is also the conductor of the Radcliffe Choral Society, the Harvard Glee Club, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum. Clark led the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s “Vespers” on Saturday. He was named director of the Holden Chior Program in May 2010 , succeeding Dr. Jameson N. Marvin.

The Harvard Crimson: Can you tell me a little bit about the upcoming performance of “Vespers”?

Andrew G. Clark: Sure. The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, a mixed choir of 60 singers, is celebrating [its] 40th anniversary this year. Through the years, they’ve often performed selections or individual movements from “Vespers” but never had an opportunity to perform the work in its entirety. We’re going to be performing the entire work, which is about 60 minutes in length—it’s quite an undertaking.

THC: Besides the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, what other groups do you lead on campus and what’s your role as the director of these groups?

AGC: My role as the director of choral activities includes [leading] the Collegium Musicum, the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus. I oversee a staff of five conductors and a choral administrator, and together we teach about 500 Harvard community members.

THC: What inspires you to wake up every morning and teach students at Harvard?

AGC: Passion’s a great word—the first reason is that our students have so much passion. Their level of engagement and excitement and their thirst for not just excellence but for intellectual probing and the refinement of their artistic craft is really what gets me out of the bed in the morning. Music is the focal point but, I would say, not the end goal for our groups. There’s a really beautiful and vibrant supportive sense of community that I think is as much a draw for our students as performance experiences themselves.

THC: Have you always been a conductor? How did you get into conducting?

AGC: When I was a young child, I played piano and sang quite a bit, and I was lucky that I felt like I knew what I wanted to do with my life, which was choral conducting. The opportunities I had in college and in graduate school really affirmed that career path for me.

THC: Did you have any particular influences growing up?

AGC: Before I knew I wanted to go into music, I thought I might want to go into American history. I was very captivated and curious about the Civil War and the music that grew out of that experience. Also, I was introduced as a choral singer to the music of Brahms and Mendelssohn—I can remember those two composers in particular inspiring and fascinating me as a really young person. I was extremely lucky…in my high school to have a teacher and a choral director [who] made a tremendous impact on my life.

THC: Do you have any insight on future of the music scene at Harvard?

AGC: I cannot think of another college or university that offers the students the sheer volume of performance opportunities [that Harvard does]. We have at least three student-led opera companies, all of these orchestras, a dozen or more a cappella groups, music theater, chamber music, choruses—there’s tremendous amount of opportunities. We also benefit from students who come to Harvard with very impressive musical experiences in high school. I think you can leave here after four years with some experiences that are unparalleled.

THC: There has been talk of trying to get Harvard up to par with conservatories. Do you think this is possible?

AGC: Absolutely, and I think our joint program [with the New England Conservatory] is a great first step. What’s attractive about that program is that it’s a five-year program; you’d spend the majority of your time here at Harvard, but you still go work with your private teacher at NEC. Then in your fifth year, you do absolutely nothing but music. My worry is, if a student turned down Juilliard and Curtis, what are we going to do to try to give them a little bit of what that experience might have been like? We don’t teach classes in diction, we don’t teach classes in string bowing technique, we don’t have eurhythmics—there are a lot of things that you can get at a music school that we just can’t get here. I think the NEC-Harvard program is trying to address that head-on.

THC: Is directing choirs at Harvard something you foresee yourself doing for the rest of your career?

AGC: Certainly. There have only been five people in my job since 1900, and legacy is a really big part of what we value in the choral program. It is the oldest collegiate choral program in the U.S., has a remarkable history, and is very well connected with alums. I’m committed to it and really love working here.