Clifford W. King

 

A native of Ogden, Utah, from an early age, Clifford King (b. 1986) had love for music and was accepted to study piano with Dr. Yu-Jane Yang at Weber State University’s piano preparatory program where he continued to study with for seven years. At this time, Clifford’s interest in piano turned toward improvisation and jazz. Clifford had the opportunity to meet with renowned jazz pianist Clayton Furch who offered to take Clifford on as one of his last students, despite having retired from teaching. With Mr. Furch, Clifford honed his improvisatory skills as well as polished his classical piano skills.

 

A lyric tenor, Clifford began studying voice at age 16 with Evelyn Harris. He has also studied with Tyler Nelson and Geoffrey Friedley. Clifford has sung with the Weber State Chamber Choir under Dr. Mark Henderson, University of Utah Singers with Dr. Brady Allred and Dr. Barlow Bradford, and a long-time member of the Salt Lake Vocal Artists, conducted by Dr. Brady Allred. With the SLVA, Clifford has performed on four continents and in nine countries including the featured choir of the Concordia Vocis music Festival in Sardinia, Italy; winning 5 first-prizes at the Arezzo International Choral competition; the featured choir of the Karuizawa International choral festival in Japan; the first World Choral Exposition in Macau, China; and the 9th World Symposium on Choral Music in Argentina where Clifford was a featured soloist. Through his extensive choral career, Clifford has worked with conductors James Jordan, André Thomas, Rosalind Hall, Brent Pierce, Edith Copley, Simon Halsey, Helmuth Rilling, John Nelson, Hans Zimmer, and Dale Warland.

 

Clifford currently works as a professional accompanist and vocalist. He has worked extensively with children as the accompanist for the Salt Lake Choral Artists’ Young Choral Artists program. Clifford works as a freelance vocalist in Salt Lake City including for HUGEsound Studios, and LA East Studios. He currently teaches music at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

 

Clifford’s performing experience goes beyond the classical/choral spectrum as well. Clifford founded the jazz ensemble “Picket Fence,” a professional quartet singing his arrangements of jazz standards, as well as has been seen singing and playing piano and trumpet with many acts whose styles range from rock and roll to indie folk including local acts like Seriously, Evan and Joel Brown. Clifford performed with the New Music Ensemble at the University of Utah, a group dedicated to performing the work of 20th-Century composers including Alban Berg’s Vier Lieder, op. 2 and Richard Wernick’s Oracle no. 2.

 

Clifford is an accomplished composer and arranger whose work has been performed all over the world and is known for his authenticity in diversity for different styles of music. His most recent commission for the Wasatch Chorale, "Let this be Heaven," was written for the annual Orem Invitational Choral Festival. His arrangement of the Russian lullaby, “Bayu, Bayushki, Bayu” was premiered by the Salt Lake Choral Artists conducted by Brady Allred as part as their contribution to the Wiegenlieder projekt, to enthusiastic acclaim. It is published by Hinshaw music, selected and edited by Andre De Quadros. His arrangement of the Macedonian lullaby, "Oj, Jano Jano" is published by Carus-Verlag as a part of a collection of Lullabies and Evensongs. He was awarded 2nd place at the 40th Annual Choral Composition Contest sponsored by Ithaca College School of Music and Mark Foster Publishing. He is the composer for the popular YouTube and podcast series "Profiling Evil." His songs have been premiered by Anna Romney Hawkes and Opera Contempo. 

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In 2022 Clifford founded and is the Artistic Director of the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir - Virtual Singers, a collective of profession choral artists dedicated to recording new works by living composers and providing archival recordings of lesser-known music. They have made over 100 recordings to date.

 

In his free time, Clifford loves the reading, travelling, photography, and the outdoors. He loves his Utah home and all the wonderful adventures nature provides right in his home state.