Charles William Clark (15 October 1865 – 4 August 1925) was an American baritone singer and vocalist teacher.

He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and America, appearing in a wide variety of roles from the Italian, French and German repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic.

[1] Attended Van Wert High School and later the Methodist College in Fort Wayne, Indiana (today Taylor University).

[2] While studying at school, Clark worked in his father's mill in Van Wert as one of the boys who turned the grain into meal and into flour.

Clark later described one of his early performances, saying: I was to sing at a concert given in one of the suburbs of Chicago at a mission, of which a young minister was the head.

... Mr. Clark, the baritone, has such a glorious voice and such a manly presence and his enunciation is so clear and distinct, that one always felt a sense of longing unsatisfied when he was not singing.

[3] In 1895, after having sung in various American cities, he moved to London to study in the Royal Academy of Music under the direction of Alberto Randegger and George Henschel.

In concert the previous fall he had sung the last scene from the opera; this was the opportunity to win artistic England.

[8] Later that same year, Clark sang at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska, accompanying the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in several performances.

At the close of his engagement in Chicago, Theodore Thomas advised Clark to return to Europe and locate for a time in Paris.

He sang at the Conservatory concerts each succeeding season in Paris appearing also with the Philharmonic Society and the Cologne Orchestra.

[11] Clark usually sang accompanied by the most famous and virtuous musicians of his time, like Claude Debussy, Pablo Casals, Ignacy Paderewski and Georg Schumann among others.

But the "storm and stress" period of youth is, in him, now refined and mellowed by study, constant singing in the world's great centres of art, and the experiences of life intensely and usefully lived.

The composers' deeper meanings are penetrated and brought forth; every shade of every mood is intensified and presented vividly to the listener.

The scholar and thinker are behind all that is sung; and a big voice, glorious in quality and of apparently limitless volume and beauty, is the vehicle of expression for all this fruit of genius and profound labor.

[3] A note in the Magazine The Musical Leader published on June 4, 1914 expressed the following: Clark's position among the world's leading vocalist is due to a combination of the qualities that command success in special styles of singing, united to versatility.

His recitals are framed with an eclectic taste and include examples from the Old Italian masters of the eighteenth century to modern French, German, Russian and English composers.

He is also recognized as an oratorio singer of genius, and among his most striking and vivid impersonations may be mentioned Judas, in Elgar's Apostles, and the Prophet, in Elijah.

[13] Clark was head of the vocal department of the Bush Conservatory in Chicago, where he influenced and guided a number of students.

The bureau also directed the concerts in America of famous artists like Ignacy Paderewski, Madame Schumann-Heink and Pascuale Amato.

Together they formed the Clark Studios in Chicago (located at the 83 Auditorium Building), where they gave singing lessons and character recitals.

Clark's operatic repertoire consisted primarily of French, German and Italian works along with a few tunes in English.