Photo Credit Chris Boutros
Mark Clifford is a vibraphonist, composer, and percussionist living in Oakland, CA.
A much sought after performer and improviser, Clifford is equally involved in free improvisation, new music, jazz, and rock; he is involved in multiple projects in the Bay Area and around the Country. His performance experience spans worldwide; he has had the honor of playing alongside an array of esteemed contemporaries, including: Jeff Parker, Kjell Nordeson, Ches Smith, Joan La Barbara, Aram Shelton, Colin Stranahan, Ron Miles, Scott Amendola, Tatsuya Nakatani, Danny Meyer, Lisa Mezzacappa, So Percussion, Oakland Active Orchestra, and has served as a percussionist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
As a composer, Clifford keeps busy writing music for a wide range of projects, ensembles, and commissions. He is the leader of The Dirty Snacks Ensemble, an eclectic post jazz ensemble in which he serves as the composer, vibraphonist and vocalist.
Clifford’s recent writing employs strong conceptual parameters for long form works, such as basing compositional interval structures on the ratio of vertebrae in human spines in Fair Slope (2014). After improvising with his established parameters, he transcribes and orchestrates the results for the working ensemble. Throughout the composition process, Clifford works closely with the performers to emphasize each individual player’s strengths and interests.
Most recently, Clifford was commissioned to create a new work for San Francisco’s Switchboard Presents Series, which will premiere Levity Factions 2-6 for two vibraphones, two percussionists, and cello. Recent commissions of new works in late 2014 include Fair Slope, an interdisciplinary dance and performance piece in collaboration with choreographer Sam Stone, as well as No Awareness, a setting of a rhythmic transcription of a Kool Kieth verse for vibraphone, drums, and piano, for the Temescal Arts Center’s Composers Colloquium. Other past works include Toddler Hammock (2013) for the Oakland Active Orchestra, Winona (2013) & The Moods (2011) for the New Keys ensemble, and A Crimson Hexagon (2011) for Piano, Vibraphone, percussion, guitar, and four dancers in collaboration with the Sam Stone Rooftop Dance Collective.
Clifford graduated with a B.M. in Classical Percussion Performance from the Lamont School of Music where he received many accolades, including the 2012 undergraduate recital of distinction, the 2012 Frank Toth Memorial Award, and the 2011 Outstanding Student in Jazz and Commercial Studies Award. Clifford studied Percussion under Colorado Symphony Orchestra master percussionist John Kinzie, Jazz Theory and Composition under pianist Eric Gunnison, and Composition under William Hill. Clifford has also had the honor of studying percussion and marimba at Nagoya University in Japan with Tomomi Sugo and has studied vibraphone with two of his greatest heroes, Steve Nelson and Matt Moran.
A much sought after performer and improviser, Clifford is equally involved in free improvisation, new music, jazz, and rock; he is involved in multiple projects in the Bay Area and around the Country. His performance experience spans worldwide; he has had the honor of playing alongside an array of esteemed contemporaries, including: Jeff Parker, Kjell Nordeson, Ches Smith, Joan La Barbara, Aram Shelton, Colin Stranahan, Ron Miles, Scott Amendola, Tatsuya Nakatani, Danny Meyer, Lisa Mezzacappa, So Percussion, Oakland Active Orchestra, and has served as a percussionist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
As a composer, Clifford keeps busy writing music for a wide range of projects, ensembles, and commissions. He is the leader of The Dirty Snacks Ensemble, an eclectic post jazz ensemble in which he serves as the composer, vibraphonist and vocalist.
Clifford’s recent writing employs strong conceptual parameters for long form works, such as basing compositional interval structures on the ratio of vertebrae in human spines in Fair Slope (2014). After improvising with his established parameters, he transcribes and orchestrates the results for the working ensemble. Throughout the composition process, Clifford works closely with the performers to emphasize each individual player’s strengths and interests.
Most recently, Clifford was commissioned to create a new work for San Francisco’s Switchboard Presents Series, which will premiere Levity Factions 2-6 for two vibraphones, two percussionists, and cello. Recent commissions of new works in late 2014 include Fair Slope, an interdisciplinary dance and performance piece in collaboration with choreographer Sam Stone, as well as No Awareness, a setting of a rhythmic transcription of a Kool Kieth verse for vibraphone, drums, and piano, for the Temescal Arts Center’s Composers Colloquium. Other past works include Toddler Hammock (2013) for the Oakland Active Orchestra, Winona (2013) & The Moods (2011) for the New Keys ensemble, and A Crimson Hexagon (2011) for Piano, Vibraphone, percussion, guitar, and four dancers in collaboration with the Sam Stone Rooftop Dance Collective.
Clifford graduated with a B.M. in Classical Percussion Performance from the Lamont School of Music where he received many accolades, including the 2012 undergraduate recital of distinction, the 2012 Frank Toth Memorial Award, and the 2011 Outstanding Student in Jazz and Commercial Studies Award. Clifford studied Percussion under Colorado Symphony Orchestra master percussionist John Kinzie, Jazz Theory and Composition under pianist Eric Gunnison, and Composition under William Hill. Clifford has also had the honor of studying percussion and marimba at Nagoya University in Japan with Tomomi Sugo and has studied vibraphone with two of his greatest heroes, Steve Nelson and Matt Moran.