Adam Vincent Clarke sits on the floor, leaning against a tiled wall in a subway station. He is wearing a white shirt, black pants, and black shoes, with his hand covering his mouth and a pensive expression.

COMPOSER

BALLET / THEATRE / OPERA

Canadian composer Adam Vincent Clarke crafts viscerally narrative scores for ballet, opera, and music theatre, blending folkloric colour with what he calls ‘gewaltsame Schönheit’—violent beauty. Based in Antwerp, his music has been heard at Sadler’s Wells, Dutch National Ballet, BalletX, Origen Festival, and with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. In 2025–26 he writes for Dutch National Ballet’s Junior Company and returns to Sadler’s Wells, while developing PUPO—a full-length music-theatre work with Muziektheater Transparant directed by Krystian Lada (premiere 2027). Clarke is a two-time ECMA nominee.

Photo of Adam Vincent Clarke, by Nathan Ishar.
Seven musicians dressed in formal attire standing on a decorated balcony, holding classical instruments including a cello, clarinet, and a violin, in an elegant, historic building with ornate ironwork and arched architecture.
Philip Lens and Allison McGuire, of Opera-Ballet Flanders, perform a duet in Nicola Wills work 'Fiction' with music by Adam Vincent Clarke. At the 2025 edition of the Origen Festival.
Black and white promotional poster for Adam V. Clarke's event featuring a man sitting against a tiled wall, wearing a white shirt with his hand over his mouth, looking at the camera.
Group of performers, and composer Adam Vincent Clarke, holding hands on stage at the end of a performance of Nicola Wills 'Fiction'. Origen Festival 2025.

Photos of ‘Est-Ouest’ and portraits by Nathan Ishar, Photos of ‘Fiction’ by Admill Kuyler Photos of ‘Hang in there, Baby’ by Rocio Chacon, Photos of ‘Two People in Love Never Shake Hands’ by All performance photography © Bill Hebert, Alexander Iziliaev, Chris Kendig Photography, or Vikki Sloviter, unless otherwise noted