Desmond Clarke (b. 1989) is a composer and oboist based in the north of England. His music has been performed extensively around the UK, particularly in Yorkshire, and throughout Europe. In 2015 he won the RPS Composition Prize, and was selected as one of the RSNO’s inaugural young composers in residence. In 2016 he completed a PhD at the University of York, studying with composer Martin Suckling.
His compositional interests include the use of algorithmic and stochastic processes, microtonality, spectral techniques and just intonation. The use of these tools, coupled with a lifelong passion for art music of every period, results in works which embody a contemporary aesthetic, but which, for better or worse, never fully escape from a classical sensibility.
His projects as of early 2018 include a guitar quartet for Quartetto Apeiron exploring eighth-tone harmony, a series of works utilising video-scores generated in real-time, and a new work for Ensemble Intercontemporain.