Biography

Baritone PETER KENDALL CLARK is a distinguished interpreter of opera and musical theater who also excels in traditional concert and song repertoire. He created the role of Ermanno Finzi-Contini in the world premiere of The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis by Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie, a co-production with NYCO and The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. He also appeared in the New York premiere of Tom Cipullo’s The Parting as the Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti (Chelsea Opera.) He also premiered the role of Older Erich in Ted Rosenthal’s jazz opera Dear Erich with New York City Opera, garnering praise from The New York Times for bringing “gravity and an earthy sound” to his “impressive” performance.

As a musical theater actor, Mr. Clark has equal affinity with dramatic, comic and romantic roles such as Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance (Charlottesville Opera, Skylight Opera Theater), Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (Charlottesville Opera), King Arthur in Camelot (Virginia and Charlottesville Opera), and Fredrik in A Little Night Music (Syracuse and Union Avenue Opera). OPERA NEWS singled him out for his performance in DiCapo Opera’s The Most Happy Fella:  “a strapping, energetic Joe (whose) soothingly sexy rendition of “Don’t Cry” was, in its way, the most memorable vocal moment in the show.” His performances as Sweeney Todd at St. Petersburg Opera and Hawaii Opera Theater were also richly praised as a barber that “not only sang gorgeously…but also displayed the dramatic range and comic timing…to turn the blackness of the tale into something transcendent” (Tampa Bay Times).

Mr. Clark made his debut with New York City Opera in their sold-out production of Candide, directed by Harold Prince, who cast him in an array of comic roles. Regional performances include Harold Hill in The Music Man (Saint Petersburg Opera), Harry Easter in Street Scene  (Virginia Opera), Bach b minor Mass (Helena Symphony), MacHeath in the Threepenny Opera (Syracuse Opera), Fredrik Eggerman in A Little Night Music and Malatesta in Don Pasquale (Union Avenue Opera), and his signature Older Thompson in Glory Denied (Opera Roanoke, Opera Company of Middlebury, and Chelsea Opera, to name name a few.) He has also assumed the title roles of Gianni Schicchi and El Gallo in the ‘boy meets boy’ The Fantasticks (Tri Cities Opera).

Clark is perhaps best known for being the guy that sang 100 consecutive concerts in front of his building in Brooklyn Heights during the Pandemic. Songs From The Ledge, now in its seventh season, was called “the hottest ticket in town!” (New York Post). CBS Inside Edition: “Call him the ‘Brownstone Baritone’. Once a week Peter Kendall Clark gets on a stoop in Brooklyn and the magic begins!” As the “Brownstone Baritone” he has received global attention and is still going strong with his Cabaret style Concerts around the country.

This season Mr. Clark returns to Carnegie Hall as soloist in the Durflé Requiem, brings his SONGS OF TRAVEL program to Cape Cod audiences and returns to Charlottesville Opera to play the King in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. In addition, he brings a brand new American Songbook concert for the 50th Anniversary of the festival and is also back on stage at the Caroga Arts Collective for Opera On The Lake: Mozart.