Composer, violinist and artist Eric Kenneth Malcolm Clark specializes in new and experimental music. After more than twenty years working primarily in the United States, Eric returned to Canada in 2025 and is now based in Nanaimo, British Columbia. He continues to compose, perform, teach violin, and develop new collaborative work, including projects with flutist and composer Christine Tavolacci through their duo Apophylite.

Eric co-founded Southland Ensemble in 2013, a Los Angeles contemporary chamber ensemble devoted to experimental music. The ensemble, which he co-directed, presented concerts, lectures, workshops and archival projects exploring the work of composers and artists including Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, Pauline Oliveros, James Tenney, Cornelius Cardew, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Johanna Beyer and Fluxus. Southland performed at REDCAT, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Noon to Midnight festival, Dog Star Orchestra Festival and other venues around Los Angeles.

Previous professional experience includes being a faculty member of the Kadima Conservatory of Music for 13 years, where Eric served as one of the Strings Directors and First Violinist of its resident string quartet. He was a member of the California E.A.R. Unit from 2006-2012, performing contemporary music and giving masterclasses in the United States and abroad. In 2008, Eric co-founded the wulf., an experimental performance venue in downtown Los Angeles that presented free concerts, sound art and interdisciplinary work, and served as co-director through 2013. More than 300 artists appeared at the wulf. during that period.

Eric has worked with many important artists and ensembles in experimental and contemporary music, including James Tenney, Jürg Frey, Michael Gordon, Richard Foreman, Guy Maddin, Christian Kesten, Michael Pisaro, Morton Subotnick, Wadada Leo Smith, Butch Morris and Han Bennink. He has performed with groups including the California E.A.R. Unit, Koan Quartet, Dog Star Orchestra, Object Collection, neither/nor, Skakk Trio and The Industry.

As a violinist, Eric has appeared on recordings by artists including Ty Segall, Cory Hanson, Wand, Sarah Davachi, Mikal Cronin, Thee Oh Sees, Jeff Morris, Anne LeBaron and Christopher Cerrone / The Industry. His playing has been released on labels including Drag City, Merge, Castle Face, Innova, New World Records, Ravello, Tzadik and ToneHole Music. His own compositions have been released by Henceforth Records, Quatuor Bozzini, New Focus Recordings, Listen/Space, Rat-drifting and others.

A regular contributor to new and experimental music communities in North America and Europe, Eric's compositions have been performed at venues and festivals including REDCAT, Western Front in Vancouver, Open Space in Victoria, Roulette, MATA / ISSUE Project Room, the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Music Gallery in Toronto and the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York. His music has been commissioned and performed by artists and ensembles including Quatuor Bozzini, Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Mantra Percussion, Kathleen Supové, Hannah Addario-Berry, Isaura String Quartet and Listen/Space.

A recurring part of Eric's work has involved altered or limited perception. His Deprivation Music series explores hearing and sight deprivation, performer choice, movement and the differences that emerge when performers are prevented from fully perceiving themselves or one another. His composition exPAT: Deprivation Music No. 4 was expanded to an eleven-guitar version for the 2009 Bang on a Can Marathon and later released by Dither Electric Guitar Quartet. Another long-running project, the Simplified Violin, uses four strings of equal thickness and tension, typically tuned around E, as a way of exploring microtonality and timbre.

His work also extends into installation and audiovisual practice, including projects presented at the Torrance Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the wulf., and online.

Eric received his BMus in Composition and Theory with Distinction from the University of Victoria and his MFA in Performance and Composition from the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied composition with James Tenney and violin with Mark Menzies. He has participated in residencies and programs at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Banff Centre, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and Western Front.

*photos by eron rauch