A native of Longview, Washington, Clark Potter began work as the viola professor at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 1996, where he serves as head of the string area and on the conducting faculty. Mr. Potter is principal viola of the Lincoln Symphony and an active performer as a solo recitalist and chamber musician, and he has premiered dozens of pieces for the viola in the last few years, including five pieces by living Nebraska composers performed on one recent recital. Mr. Potter is the director of NEBratsche, the viola ensemble at UNL (for whom he is busy arranging music) and he conducts the Lincoln Youth Symphony. He is also a member of the Third Chair Chamber Players and is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician at schools in Nebraska and around the region.
Prior to his appointment at Nebraska, Mr. Potter taught nine years at Eastern Oregon University, where he was associate professor of strings and conductor of the Grande Ronde Symphony. He received his graduate degrees from Indiana University and California Institute of the Arts and his bachelor's degree from Western Washington University. He has studied with Charmian Gadd, Peter Marsh, James Dunham and Mimi Zweig.
During the summers, Mr. Potter is on the faculty of the University of Nebraska's Chamber Music Institute, and since 1997 he has performed in the Oregon Coast Music Festival Orchestra. He has been a guest artist at Rocky Ridge Music Center and an artist/teacher of viola and chamber music at the Young Musicians and Artists summer program in Salem, Oregon, the Puget Sound Chamber Music Workshop, Lutheran Summer Music program and the Csehy Summer School of Music in Philadelphia. He is active in the American String Teachers Association: he served six years on the board of the Nebraska chapter, he was president of the Oregon chapter, and he has written for the organization's national magazine. Mr. Potter has also dabbled in composition. He recently completed two pieces for young orchestras, and he has written music for two contemporary ballets, one full-length "cowboy" musical, several pieces for choir and pieces for smaller instrumental combinations, including a sextet for violas.
In 2005 he was a featured soloist performing Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Anton Miller and the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra. In 2001 and 2002, Mr. Potter performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and the Landmark Theatre of Richmond, VA with folk legend Arlo Guthrie as a member of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. During the summer of 2002 he toured Italy and Austria as principal violist of the Southwest Washington Chamber Orchestra. In addition, he is half way to his goal of performing as a soloist or chamber musician in each of the 50 states.
Clark would rather be at home than anywhere else in the world, however, enjoying time with his children (Shannon, 17, and Samuel, 13) and his wife, Jan. He is a big baseball fan, and his favorite hobby is to run and race on roads and trails year around.
