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 Chair 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. Mr. Potter is the director of NEBratsche, the viola ensemble at UNL (for whom he is busy arranging music) and he has conducted the Lincoln Youth Symphony since 2007, including concerts in Rome, Budapest and Vienna. He is also a member of the Third Chair Chamber Players, a founding member of the Trans-Nebraska Players, and he is in demand as an adjudicator and clinician at schools in Nebraska and around the region. He has conducted All-State Middle School Orchestras in Iowa, Oregon and Alabama. In 2007, Mr. Potter was selected to receive the award for Private String Teacher of the Year by the Nebraska chapter of the American String Teachers Association, and in 2008 he was honored as the String Educator of the Year in Nebraska by the same organization.
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 Peter Marsh, Charmian Gadd, Richard Goldner, James Dunham and Mimi Zweig.
During the summers, Mr. Potter is on the faculty of the University of Nebraska's Chamber Music Institute and the Omaha Conservatory of Music Institute. He has been a performer in the Oregon Coast Music Festival Orchestra, a guest artist at Rocky Ridge Music Center, 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. 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 was recently elected to serve on the Nebraska Music Educators Assoc. executive board. He has also dabbled in composition, having composed three pieces for young orchestras, music for two contemporary ballets, one full-length "cowboy" musical, several pieces for choir and pieces for smaller instrumental combinations, including a viola sextet.
In 2010, Mr. Potter performed the viola solo in Vaughan Williams' Flos Campi with the Lincoln Symphony, and with the same orchestra he was featured with violinist Anton Miller, performing Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in 2005. In 2010 he performed the premiere of Martin Gaskell's Fantasia for Viola and Orchestra in Austin, TX and performed the Telemann Concerto with the Southwest Washington Symphony in 2011. 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 family (wife, Jan; daughter Shannon and her husband Phillip; and son Samuel). He is a big baseball fan, and his favorite hobby is to run and race on roads and trails year around.
