SHORT BIO

Ford Fourqurean is an award-winning clarinetist and electronic musician based in Brooklyn. Ford strives to connect communities through adventurous performances and programming bringing together the clarinet, multimedia technology, and a years of self-produced concert experience to bring audiences into the concert experience. He serves as artistic director and clarinetist of Unheard-of//Ensemble presenting unique multimedia concert experiences around the United States.

 

Known as “a unique force” (The Clarinet Journal), he has toured across the United States with Unheard-of//Ensemble presenting guest artist performances and residences at Northwestern, Manhattan School of Music, Cornell, and Oberlin with a repertoire of over 100 works written for the ensemble. In 2023-2024, he is performing on University of Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge series, University of Wyoming, and California State University - Northridge, as well as on tours of the South and Midwest with Unheard-of. He has won grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, Chamber Music America, Brooklyn Arts Council, Barlow Endowment, Alice M. Ditson Fund, Puffin Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Johnstone Fund, and New Music USA.

 

Ford has performed with Contemporaneous, Little Orchestra Society, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Curiosity Cabinet, the New Manhattan Sinfonietta, and performs regularly with ensemble mise-en. His group Spark Duo with trumpeter Kate Amrine has toured Puerto Rico in 2021 and New Mexico and Arizona visiting the Interference Series, University of New Mexico, Arizona State University, University of Northern Arizona, and University of Arizona.

 

LONG BIO

Ford Fourqurean is an award-winning clarinetist and electronic musician based in Brooklyn. Ford strives to connect communities through adventurous performances and programming bringing together the clarinet, multimedia technology, and a years of self-produced concert experience to bring audiences into the concert experience. He serves as artistic director and clarinetist of Unheard-of//Ensemble presenting unique multimedia concert experiences around the United States.

 

Known as “a unique force” (The Clarinet Journal), he has toured across the United States with Unheard-of//Ensemble presenting guest artist performances and residences at Northwestern, Manhattan School of Music, Cornell, and Oberlin with a repertoire of over 100 works written for the ensemble. In 2023-2024, he is performing on University of Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge series, University of Wyoming, and California State University - Northridge, as well as on tours of the South and Midwest with Unheard-of. 

 

During the 2022-23 season, Unheard-of presented educational residencies, workshops, and performances at Kent State University, Washington University of St. Louis, Illinois State University, and Northwestern as well as performing at Constellation Chicago, Crosstown Arts’s series in Memphis, Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival performance at Merkin Hall, and a collaboration with Minnesota-based Spitting Image Collective workshopping and premiering new multimedia works. Unheard-of served as the 2021-22 KEAR ensemble-in-residence at Bowling Green State University, and presented tours of the midwest visiting the Johnstone Fund Series in Columbus, Ohio, Miami University, Ohio University, and West Virginia University. The group also toured the South with performances at Texas State University, University of Texas San Antonio, Southeastern Louisiana University, University of Tennessee Chattanooga.

 

He is Director of the Collaborative Composition Initiative workshop (CCI//Sessions) bringing together composers each summer from across the country. He has won grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, Chamber Music America (Artistic Projects, Classical Commissioning with Christopher Stark, and Ensemble Forward), Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, the Barlow Endowment to commission Reiko Füting, Alice M. Ditson Fund, Puffin Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Johnstone Fund for New Music, and New Music USA.

 

Ford has performed across New York from National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall, and Roulette to smaller venues and DIY spaces including Unheard-of’s own Cultural Ecologies series floating on the Gowanus Canal. As a freelancer, Ford has worked with Contemporaneous, Little Orchestra Society, Fresh Squeezed Opera, and Curiosity Cabinet in a guest residency at Queens College. He performs regularly with ensemble mise-en. His group Spark Duo with trumpeter Kate Amrine has toured Puerto Rico in 2021 and New Mexico and Arizona visiting the Interference Series, University of New Mexico, Arizona State University, University of Northern Arizona, and University of Arizona in Spring 2020. In fall 2019, he performed in Seoul, South Korea with ensemble mise-en as part of Arts Incubator’s Audio Trading Manual. He toured the Midwest in 2018 with Tenth Intervention visiting Denison University, Alia Musica Pittsburgh’s Contemporary Festival, and the Johnstone series in Columbus, Ohio.

 

Ford performs with and teaches courses on music technology. He currently teaches MUS208: Intro to Music Technology and MUS300: Music, Audio, and Digital Culture at Stony Brook University. His article on streaming live concerts and the “virtual tour” has been published on The Clarinet Journal Online where he serves as one of the contributors for album reviews. He has presented lectures on adapting to remote recording and streaming at University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire, Troy University, and Coastal Carolina University, as well as an interactive workshop exploring Unheard-of’s in-house recording/performance setup on tour at Washington University of St. Louis. Ford has also presented his research on Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Quintet at Clarinet Fest, Madrid as finalist of the 2015 International Clarinet Association Research Competition. He has also earned recognition as one of six national winners of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi’s Marcus L. Urann Fellowship. 

 

As a composer, Ford studied composition with Nirmali Fenn, Reiko Füting, Todd Reynolds, and Fred Cohen. He worked as studio manager and assistant in MSM’s Contemporary Performance Program coordinating electronics for contemporary recitals. His music has been performed at Oh My Ears! Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, Mise-en’s Bushwick Open Studios, the Concept Lab series, Cortona Sessions, and at ClarinetFests in Reno and Denver. He released Iris, an EP co-composed Erich Barganier as Shutterspeed Duo in February 2021.

 

Ford serves as the Director of Concerts, Marketing, and Publicity at Stony Brook University’s Music Department. He graduated with a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Stony Brook where he was awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship for his work exploring new ways of using electronics in clarinet performance and an IDEA Fellowship supporting new video interview projects highlighting creative research within the College of Arts and Sciences. He served as a Teaching Assistant and Assistant Director of the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players (CCP) and served as Interim Director of the CCP during the Fall 2019 semester. He holds a Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program where he worked with David Krakauer and Alan R. Kay.