About
I perform on early keyboard instruments (pianoforte/harpsichord/organ) for solo and collaborative work. My practice is based in historical material and re-imagines the sound of early instruments and lost soundscape. I'm especially interested in music and philosophy of the Enlightenment, ritual, and sound ecologies; I frequently experiment with temperament and digital processes in live performance.
Biography
Canadian musician Katelyn Clark specializes in the performance of historical repertoire and experimental music on early keyboard instruments. She works through informed playing, improvisation, and innovative performance practice on the harpsichord, pianoforte, and portative organ (organetto). Katelyn has concertized internationally as a soloist and collaborative musician and has held artist residencies at the Banff Centre (Alberta), NES (Skagaströnd, Iceland), OMI (Ghent, New York), Artscape (Toronto Island, ON), and SPAR (St. Petersburg, Russia). Her artistic practice and scholarly study have been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Fonds du recherche du Québec – Société et culture, The Banff Centre, and the Early Music Society of the Islands.
As a scholar-performer, Katelyn's research and live practice focuses on early generations of pianists, natural philosophers, and instrument builders of the eighteenth century. She is particularly involved in the study of temperament, early piano construction, and the relationship of musical environment to historical soundscape. Her research has been published in Early Music, Eighteenth-Century Music, HAYDN, and Women and Music. Katelyn is also a member of the award-winning early music ensemble duo corvi, which specializes in the creative performance of repertoire from thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.
Katelyn's experimental practice focuses on semi-improvised music for portative organs, harpsichord, and electronics, often in collaborative settings. She creates long-duration works in live performance and explores acoustic and digital manipulation of sequences in modified historical temperaments. Katelyn is also an active performer and commissioner of new Canadian compositions for the harpsichord; she has premiered over 100 solo and chamber pieces, including recent works by Anna Pidgorna, Linda Catlin Smith, and Tawnie Olson.
Originally from Victoria, British Columbia, Katelyn studied with Bob van Asperen (Conservatorium van Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Christophe Rousset (Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena, Italy), Erich Schwandt/Doreen Oke (University of Victoria, BC). She holds a doctorate in early music performance from McGill University (Montréal, Québec), where she studied with Tom Beghin/Hank Knox.