A native of Ohio, CLARK WILSON began his musical training at age nine. While growing up he accompanied numerous stage musicals and was organist at several churches. At this time he was listed in “Who’s Who in the Midwest” and “Men of Achievement.” He also holds Life Member status in the International Tri-M Music Honor Society and is listed in “Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals.”
Following several years with the Schantz Organ Company as a reed voicer and tonal finisher, Wilson’s professional playing career began with his appointment to the featured organist post at Pipe Organ Pizza in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has since been on the playing staffs at the Paramount Music Palace in Indianapolis, Indiana, Pipes and Pizza in Lansing, Illinois, and is currently associated with Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona, where he is on the organ staff as well as having assisted with the planning and installation of the world’s largest Wurlitzer organ.
Wilson’s recording credits include seven albums. He has given all-transcription recitals for the AGO, played for the 1990 Organ Historical Society convention, and performed at numerous National and Regional conventions of the ATOS. He has also been a visiting lecturer on theater organ and silent picture accompaniment for the Indiana University organ department. He has concertized in the United States, Canada, Australia, and England, and done extensive silent film accompaniment, including at the Chautauqua Institution in New York, the Packard Foundation’s Stanford Theatre, UCLA, and the Fox Theatre for the Atlanta premiere of the restored Metropolis. In 2009, he accompanied Metropolis on the dedication of the organ and theater organ/silent film program for the American Organ Institute at the University of Oklahoma. This evening he plays the sixth annual silent film on the organ series at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
He has scored for Kino International for commercial release, and has performed at both the Cinequest and San Francisco Silent Film Festivals, as well as for the Los Angeles Conservancy. Wilson is the resident organist and organ conservator at the famed Ohio Theatre in Columbus, Ohio and was chosen to re-premiere the renowned Chicago Theatre Organ on a bill that included Michael Feinstein.
Along with a busy concert schedule, Wilson runs his own pipe organ business and is heavily in demand as a tonal consultant and finisher of both theater and classical pipe organs; he has been given the honor of being brought to England multiple times for tonal finishing and consulting. He has received both the Technician of the Year and Organist of the Year awards from the American Theatre Organ Society, the only person to have done so, and his time is now nearly equally divided between concert and technical work.
