Canadian born baritone, Jesse Clark is a graduate of Queen's University with an Honours degree in English Literature, and of the University of Toronto's Opera Division. Roles at the school included Starveling in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Le Fauteuil in Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortilèges, the Vicar in Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring, Popolani in Offenbach's Barbe Bleue and John Wilson in the world première of The Last Duel by Gary Kulesha. Jesse has participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival and The Steans Institute at Ravinia where he worked with such artists as: Phyllis Curtin, Matthias Goerne, Dawn Upshaw, Seiji Ozawa, Frederico Cortese, Malcolm Martineau, Pierre Vallet, Margo Garrett, Martin Katz and Rudolph Piernay. Jesse has also traveled to England on several occasions to attend the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program. While in Aldeburgh, he performed the role of Harlekin in R. Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos directed by Colin Graham. It was this performance that received the following comments from Coventry critic, Roderick Dunnett in his review of the Covent Garden production of Ariadne: "though even (Nathan) Gunn was outdone, interestingly, by Aldeburgh's supremely inspired and impossibly young, poised, vivacious and vocally gripping Canadian Jesse Clark, who made the role wholly his own".
Jesse participated in master classes at the Britten-Pears School with Malcolm Martineau, Ann Murray, Philip Langridge and Graham Johnson culminating in a recital of Schubert and Britten at London's Wigmore Hall accompanied by Graham Johnson. .
Recent engagements include Henry Cuffe in Britten's Gloriana (his professional UK debut) for the Aldeburgh Festival, conducted by Richard Hickox, which was recorded by the BBC, the baritone solos in Britten's War Requiem conducted by Simone Young at Snape Maltings, the role of Il Conte in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro for the Banff Centre, conducted by David Agler, and performed in part of the Tapestry New Opera Works anniversary celebration entitled Opera Briefs. Jesse has been seen on the concert stage singing a program of Handel and Bach with the Mississauga Choral Society and a Last Night at the Proms concert with the Georgian Bay Symphony. This spring he performed in several concerts for the Greenwich Music Festival and reprised the role of Il Conte for the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont with Ken Noda. While at Marlboro, Jesse also performed works of Schubert, Fauré, Barber and Poulenc with various chamber ensembles. Highlights of this season include the bass solos in Mozart's Coronation Mass and a program of Mozart arias and ensembles with The Mississauga Choral Society and an all Poulenc program with The Florestan Project in Boston. He also has return engagements with The Aldeburgh Connection performing a recital of Debussy, the Greenwich Music Festival and the Marlboro Music Festival. Jesse currently lives in Toronto.