Soprano Maria Clark

Created in honor of the late Atlanta arts enthusiast Nancy Walker Frampton, The Nancy Frampton Rising Artists Series is a concert program highlighting the next generation of classical music stars. The series aims to bring exciting new talent to Atlanta audiences from a variety of performance genres. The 2025 season begins with a concert by Soprano Maria Clark. All concerts take place at Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.

Maria Clark, Soprano

With a voice judges described as “dazzling” and “richly expressive,” soprano Maria Clark performed on the stage of Carnegie Hall as First Prize Winner of the 2008 Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition. “One seldom finds a voice capable of such beauty across a variety of idioms,” said Cosmo Buono, executive director. “A voice this much at home in opera, lieder, and spirituals is very rare. She is truly, both artistically and vocally, a triumph.” Clark’s career has grown since 2005 when she landed a position with the Atlanta Opera and appeared with the ensemble of Atlanta Opera in its 2005 production of Carmen; participated in Atlanta Opera and Opera Comique’s 2008 collaborative production of Porgy & Bess; and toured in France, Spain, and Luxembourg performing as the Strawberry Woman. Clark’s impressive rendition of the role earned her the cover of Bess in the Atlanta Opera’s main stage production of Porgy & Bess in 2011. In 2012, Clark was honored to make her debut with FOSBO-Fundación Orquesta Sinfónica de Bogotá Colombia, and she also performed with the Ludwig and Dekalb symphonies. In 2015, she appeared with the North Carolina Opera as Odessa Clay in Approaching Ali. In 2022, Clark performed the role of Miriam from Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses with the New England Repertory Orchestra. She also premiered the soprano solo role in Robert Hooker’s, Without Regard to Sex, Race, or Color. Also in spring 2022, Clark collaborated with composer and pianist Maria Thompson Corley, to release a CD of contemporary African American spirituals, titled Soul Sanctuary. Additionally, in summer of 2022, Clark performed on the 96-Hour Opera Project produced by Atlanta Opera. In the opera, Gone with That Wind by Marcus Norris and Adamma Ibo, Clark gave a winning performance for her role as Vera. Maria again, for the second season in a row, was part of the winning team for Atlanta Opera’s 96-hour project in the summer of 2023, for her operatic role portrayal of “The Mother of Orphans”, Mrs. Cassie Steele Logan, in Dave Ragland and Selda Sahin’s, Steele Roots.

Recent performances in Fall of 2023 included a concert orchestral world premiere of the song cycle, “Message for Your Son” written for Maria, by acclaimed composer, DJ Sparr. This song cycle was premiered with the Chicago Composers Orchestra. Maria also performed a tour of her “Soul Sanctuary” cd in Pennsylvania, and was the soprano soloist in Handel’s, Messiah, with the Trey Clegg Singers with whom she is a regular soloist. Ms. Clark has also been a regular performer for the yearly Diamond Awards at Morehouse College and is a Master Clinician for vocal workshops and masterclasses for “The Art of the African American Spiritual” project at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and in the public schools in Oshkosh in Fall of 2024. She has also held general vocal masterclasses and workshops at Northeastern University in Oklahoma, University of North GA, Spelman College, and GA College and State University, and has conducted vocal workshops with various choral organizations across Georgia.

Clark serves as a board member of the Irene Harrower Opera Program at Georgia State University and is a member of NANM (National Association of Negro Musicians), and is also a longtime member of NATS, (National Association of Teachers of Singing). Maria has served as Coordinator of Applied Lessons and Vocal Studies at Spelman College and is currently an Artist Affiliate for Emory Atlanta University and Emory Oxford College locations. Clark has a BM degree from Manhattan School of Music and a MM degree from Georgia State University.

Host or Publisher The Nancy Frampton Rising Artists Series