Richard Auldon Clark - Associate Professor of conducting,
violin, and viola
Richard Auldon Clark knows classical music, sure. He studied at
the Manhattan School of Music under Raphael Bronstein (violin) and
Lillian Fuchs (viola), and he founded the Manhattan Chamber
Orchestra. But the associate professor of music and conductor of
the Butler Symphony Orchestra also has credits that include
performing in Broadway orchestras (Annie Get Your Gun and
Ragtime), on "Saturday Night Live" with Led Zeppelin
guitarist Jimmy Page and Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and on Aerosmith's
hit song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." He also collaborates with
Kurt Vonnegut on setting recordings of the author's books to
music.
"I believe you have to live in the whole world of music," Clark
says. "You have to understand jazz and rock and pop as well as the
great symphonic writings. If you don't teach it that way, you limit
a person's possibilities. If you don't teach your students the
commercial side of the business, you're sending them out into a
firing squad."
Clark grew up in Apalachin, N.Y., and started playing violin at
nine. Viola soon followed, as did piano and some voice work. Then
trumpet.
"I was absolutely horrible," he says, "but just being a string
player wasn't good enough as far as having the authority to stand
in front of a group and lead them and talk with knowledge about all
the different instruments."
He left upstate New York as soon as he was old enough for
Manhattan School of Music, where he earned his bachelor's and
master's degrees. He taught at New York's Ethical Culture Schools
and continues to work with the MCO and as a freelance musician.
Encouraged by colleagues to consider Butler, Clark came to
Indianapolis and found himself "invigorated." He joined the faculty
in 2003.
"I've always had a deep, deep respect for the art of teaching,"
he says. "When all is said and done, there are thousands of
violinists out there, there are great conductors but when you take
somebody who wants to commit themselves to their students and who
can really change a life and develop a career, it's a lot more
productive."