A native of Utah, Salt Lake City-based composer Clifford W. King began composing almost as soon as he was accepted to study piano with Yu-Jane Yang at Weber State University when he was seven years old. In his teens King had the opportunity to meet with renowned jazz pianist Clayton Furch who offered to take him on as one of his last students, despite having retired from teaching. With Furch, King honed his improvisatory skills as well as polished his classical piano skills. He was a sophomore in high school when his compositions were first performed and has been steadily composing ever since.

His most recent commission, the Russian lullaby “Bayu, Bayushki, Bayu,” was performed by Salt Lake Choral Artists conducted by Brady Allred as part as their contribution to the Wiegenlieder Projekt. It is published by Hinshaw music, selected and edited by Andre De Quadros. His arrangement of the Macedonian lullaby “Oj, Jano Jano” is published by Carus-Verlag as a part of a collection of Lullabies and Evensongs.

As a lyric tenor, King studied for 10 years with Evelyn Harris before studying at the University of Utah. While at the University of Utah, he was the only vocalist in the New Music Ensemble, where he performed the works of Berg, Wernick, and Karchin.

He has sung in many international and prize-winning ensembles and studied with Brady Allred, Barlow Bradford, Miguel Chuaqi, and Igor Iachimciuc.

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