Biography

Ewan’s love of music grew in the 1990s as a trombonist in groups such as the NZ Secondary Schools’ Symphony Orchestra and National High Schools’ Jazz Orchestra. He passed grade 8 with distinction in 1997 and won a 1998 NZ Post Young Musician’s Award. At 17, his Braveheart-inspired composition Landfall received repeat performances by the Southern Sinfonia and won the 1998 New Zealand Young Composers’ Award, adjudicated by Anthony Ritchie and Philip Norman. As a composition student at the University of Otago, a love of Arvo Pärt and other “new simplicity” composers influenced Reverie and Gethsemane. Reverie received its seventh outing in 2011 thanks to the SMP Ensemble, whilst Gethsemane was performed by the Wellington Youth and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras in 2001 and 2004, respectively. According to John Button reviewing the WYO for The Dominion (08/11/01), Gethsemane “reveals a natural feel for neo-romanticism; a completely absorbed marriage of feelings and formality that has the emotional depth of Górecki, and even Kanceli… surpassingly beautiful”. It also features in the film Counting on Fingers by Adam Arkapaw, whose work has received the Cannes Jury Prize for short film.

In 2001 Ewan received the CFAMC Scholarship through an online community of mostly American composers, aiding a transfer to Victoria University of Wellington. At Victoria he benefited from the diverse strengths of Ross Harris, Jack Body, Lissa Merridan and John Psathas to complete his Bachelor of Music and Graduate Diploma in Arts. Successful concert works from this period include Soliloquy for cello and Starflakes & Snowfish for piano. At this time he also studied conducting under Marc Taddei, gaining experience with young choirs and orchestras and conducting a season with the Wellington Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Most significantly, Ewan and Dylan Lardelli founded GateSeven in 2003. With this contemporary music ensemble, he planned and conducted concerts featuring new music by NZ composers including Ross Harris, Jack Body, Chris Watson, Rachel Morgan and Chris Gendall. His conducting performance of James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words From The Cross with GateSeven and the Tudor Consort has received at least three subsequent broadcasts by Radio NZ Concert.

After training as a teacher in 2005, in 2006-9 Ewan taught classroom music at Auckland Grammar School, whilst using his spare time to establish himself as Musical Director of the Auckland Wind Orchestra and as an emerging film composer. He also wrote choir pieces such as Never No More, some hymns and children’s piano pieces including Day Dreaming, which features in the publication Sunrise.

In 2008, Ewan established www.ewanclark.net , which promotes his screen music through audio samples and testimonials from directors. He moved with his wife to London in September 2009 to expand his horizons through travel and new musical experiences. Ewan initially taught classroom music at The London Oratory School (of Lord of the Rings boys’ choir fame), before taking on a part-time role at JAGS, where Holst and Vaughan-Williams are past music masters. He has also freelanced a little as a trombonist, playing with various leading amateur orchestras including the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra.

In September 2011 Ewan will commence his studies at the Royal College of Music in Composition for Screen, having received an RCM Scholarship towards his fees and the 2011 Edwin Carr Foundation Scholarship, for which he is extremely grateful to the Edwin Carr Foundation and Creative New Zealand. After completing his studies at the RCM, he intends to return to New Zealand to make a valuable musical contribution to NZ film and music.

• Works performed (2)
• Works (6)
• Awards (1)