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Karen Clark-Green, Singer, Actor, Choreographer, Director, Playwright
Karen Clark-Green, originally from Warren, Ohio, has been performing professionally since the age of 9. She is an original member of the famed Kenley Players starting in the 1959 production of the King and I with Betty White, in which she was one of the King’s children. She continued to work with Kenley as a child actor/dancer throughout her childhood and as a young adult. She states that John Kenley was the biggest influence on her life as a performer. In her 20s she became a part of the touring company performing with some of Hollywood and Broadway's finest who took the time to mentor her. Her musical theater credits are vast after 40 years of performing.
Karen began her opera career in her 20s after becoming a voice major at Youngstown State University, where she received her Associate of Arts (Telecommunications) and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees. She excelled in winning many vocal competitions and was presented in performance in the outstanding senior/graduate recital. She was accepted into the American Institute of Musical Studies summer institute in Graz, Austria, where she sang the lead role in the world premier opera Dream Sequence in Vienna and toured with the Sommer Carinthischer Gershwin Festival, performing in the concert version of Porgy & Bess and Gershwin concerts throughout Austria and Yugoslavia.
Clark-Green has performed the opera Porgy and Bess over 37 times as Bess, Serena and Clara. Other opera credits include Madame Butterfly, Cosi fan Tutte, Turandot, Rigoletto, Aida, La Boheme, The Medium, The Magic Flute, The Crucible, The Old Maid and the Thief, Carmen, Susanna and the PBS performances of Hansel & Gretel and Albert Herring. Orchestra credits include Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, American Spoleto Orchestra, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Warren Concert Band, and Akron Symphony Orchestra. Karen states, "Without the constant encouragement and advice of my friend and mentor William Slocum, I would not have been able to navigate through the various genres of being an artist."
Ms. Green received her Master of Music degree from the University of Akron. In 1993 she founded Archangel Fine & Applied Arts Center, which developed a Jazz in the Park series that is in its 24th year, Archangel Dance Theater and Archangel Touring Theater. The Dance Theater became a touring company, which offered an annual performance for city schools at Stambaugh Auditorium while touring across country. In 2001 they were invited to represent the United States in the World Dance Festival; however after 9/11, the trip was canceled. While attending the University of Akron as a graduate assistant, she was invited (after singing at an Italian Master Class) to study with Claudio Giombi at the Young Artist studio of La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy.
Karen has continued as a director, playwright and author, venturing into television and film. March 2018 along with David Vosburgh, she directed and choreographed the opera Porgy and Bess for Opera Western Reserve. She became a regular guest acting coach at the Actors Complex in Hollywood, was named top female monologue actor at the International Model Talent Association conference in New York City in 2014 and has mentored students that have achieved great careers in opera, stage, dance, film, TV, fashion and education. Presently she can be seen as Grandma Lucille in the Amazon Prime TV series Mafia Ties as she continues her musical theater career.
A note from Karen Clark Green to Susan Davenny Wyner, when planning the Spring Concert:
"Yes, the songs here are part of a story because I do have one, just in reference to making this performance personal! The Bridges songs are love songs, literally telling my story of where I'm at right now. I would like to end with those. I see the [Ricky Ian] Gordon songs first. I would like to read the Emily Dickinson poem Will There Really Be a Morning, if possible before I sing. A Glamorous Life is my life with my children, feeling guilty when I would have to be gone. It also has that wonderful drive to it. I'm so looking forward to this!"
Follow Karen Clark-Green on Facebook and Twitter. See additional information at Pro Model & Talent Management.
This page was last revised on March 27, 2019.