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Ford Fourqurean is an award-winning clarinetist, composer, and educator based in Brooklyn. Described by The Clarinet Journal as “a unique force,” he is the artistic director and clarinetist of Unheard-of//Ensemble, a group celebrated for its adventurous multimedia programming and more than 200 commissioned works. Ford connects communities through innovative concerts that blend clarinet, technology, and immersive experiences.

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With Unheard-of//Ensemble, he has toured nationally, presenting guest artist performances and residencies at institutions including Northwestern University, the Manhattan School of Music, Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Pennsylvania, and Oberlin. Upcoming highlights for the 2025–2026 season include premieres by Leila Adu, David Bird, Christian Quiñones, and Matt McBane; a December partnership with Tribeca New Music; an NYU residency in April; and a summer Cultural Ecologies series with collaborators such as Discocactus, The Ladles, and comedian Isabel Hagen. Ford will also compose and produce a site-specific work exploring the flow of the Gowanus, performed by the ensemble from canoes on the waterway. Beyond Unheard-of, Ford has appeared with Contemporaneous, Wordless Music Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society, Fresh Squeezed Opera, and ensemble mise-en, and has toured internationally with Spark Duo, which recently performed across Thailand and Puerto Rico.

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An advocate for music technology education, and arts administration Ford serves as the Director of Concerts and Marketing at Stony Brook University where he also teaches MUS 300: Music, Audio, and Digital Culture. His writings on streaming and “virtual touring” appear in The Clarinet Journal, and he frequently lectures nationwide on recording and performance practices. Ford has received grants from organizations including the New York State Council on the Arts, Chamber Music America, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and New Music USA. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Stony Brook and a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program. He studied with Alan R. Kay and David Krakauer.

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LONG BIO

Ford Fourqurean is an award-winning clarinetist and educator based in Brooklyn. Ford connects communities through adventurous performances and programming, bringing together the clarinet, multimedia technology, and years of self-produced concert experience to draw audiences into the concert experience. He serves as artistic director and clarinetist of Unheard-of//Ensemble. Known as “a unique force” (The Clarinet Journal), he has toured across the United States with Unheard-of//Ensemble, presenting guest artist performances and residencies at Northwestern, the Manhattan School of Music, Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Pennsylvania, and Oberlin with a repertoire of over 200 works written for the ensemble.

Unheard-of’s 2025–2026 season showcases premieres by Leila Adu, David Bird, Christian Quiñones, Matt McBane, and many others, celebrating eleven years of composer collaborations. Highlights include a December partnership with Tribeca New Music, an NYU residency and concert experience in April, and a summer Cultural Ecologies series exploring new sounds and spaces with collaborators like Discocactus, The Ladles, and comedian Isabel Hagen. Ford will compose and produce a new site-specific work exploring the flow of the Gowanus, with members of the ensemble performing in canoes along the waterway. On tour, Unheard-of visits Oberlin, Ohio State University, Ohio University, the Johnstone Fund (November), the University of Missouri–Kansas City (February), and multiple Florida universities (March). Past appearances include residencies at Oberlin, Northwestern, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music, as well as performances at National Sawdust, Roulette, Symphony Space, Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Hall.

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As a freelancer, Ford has performed with Contemporaneous, Wordless Music Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society, Fresh Squeezed Opera, and Curiosity Cabinet. He has performed regularly with ensemble mise-en since 2019. His group Spark Duo, with trumpeter Kate Amrine, toured Thailand in May 2025 as guests at Mahidol University (Bangkok), Kasetsart University (Bangkok), and the Prince Royal School (Chiang Mai). They performed across Puerto Rico in 2021 and in New Mexico and Arizona, visiting the Interference Series, the University of New Mexico, Arizona State University, the University of Northern Arizona, and the University of Arizona in spring 2020.

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Ford teaches courses on music technology at Stony Brook University. He currently teaches MUS 300: Music, Audio, and Digital Culture each spring semester and has taught MUS 208: Intro to Music Technology. His article on streaming live concerts and the “virtual tour” has been published in The Clarinet Journal, where he also serves as a contributor for album reviews. He has presented lectures on adapting to remote recording and streaming at the 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 universities across the U.S. Ford also presented his research on Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Quintet at ClarinetFest in Madrid as a finalist of the 2015 International Clarinet Association Research Competition. He earned recognition as one of six national winners of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi’s Marcus L. Urann Fellowship.

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As an adept arts administrator, Ford serves as the Director of Concerts, Marketing, and Publicity at Stony Brook University’s Music Department. He is also Director of the Collaborative Composition Initiative workshop (CCI), now in its eighth year, bringing together composers each summer from across the country. He has won grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Chamber Music America, Brooklyn Arts Council, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Barlow Endowment, the Copland Fund, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Puffin Foundation, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Johnstone Fund, and New Music USA.

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As a composer, Ford studied composition with Nirmali Fenn, Reiko Füting, Todd Reynolds, Margaret Schedel, 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 the Oh My Ears! Festival in Phoenix, Arizona, Mise-en’s Bushwick Open Studios, the Concept Lab series, the Cortona Sessions, and at ClarinetFests in Dublin, Reno, and Denver.

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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. He served as a Teaching Assistant and Assistant Director of the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players (CCP), as well as Interim Director of the CCP during the fall 2019 semester. He holds a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program, where he studied with David Krakauer and Alan R. Kay.