Zhay Clark (July 16, 1895 – April 25, 1980) was an American harpist.
Zhay Clark | |
|---|---|
 Zhay Clark, from a 1921 publication. | |
| Born | July 16, 1895 St. Louis, Missouri |
| Died | April 25, 1980 Los Angeles, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Zhay Clark Moor (after 1935) |
| Occupation | Harpist |
Early life edit
Zhay Clark was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Charles Napier Clark and Emma Piercey Clark. She studied music in Denver and St. Paul.[1]
Career edit
Clark was harpist with the Denver Philharmonic Society as a young woman. In 1915, she performed at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, demonstrating harps for the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company.[2] In 1917 and 1918, she toured North America with Swiss cellist Elsa Ruegger. During the 1919-1920 season, she was harpist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. She transcribed and arranged Charles Wakefield Cadman's "From the Land of the Sky Blue Water" for solo harp.[3][4] By 1928, she was billed as "America's foremost harpist."[5] In 1931, she served on the faculty of the Mount St. Mary's College summer school, teaching harp.[6]
Later in her career, Clark worked in the film industry, and performed on radio.[7] In 1929 she worked with actress Corinne Griffith on her harp performance in The Divine Lady, an early experimental sound film.[8] In the 1940s, she played with Frank Sinatra's orchestra.[9] She played harp on Bernard Herrmann's scores for On Dangerous Ground (1951)[10] and Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953),[11] and on the Dimitri Tiomkin scores of the films The Thing From Another World (1951) and Take the High Ground! (1953).[12]
Personal life edit
Zhay Clark married a fellow musician, woodwind player Weyert A. Moor,[13] in 1935; the couple lived in Glendale, California. Moor died in 1959.[14] Clark died in Los Angeles in 1980, aged 84 years.
References edit
- ^ "Zhay Clark, A Noted Harpist" Pacific Coast Musical Review 41(October 29, 1921): 4.
- ^ "Harp Soloist Will Give Concert Sunday". Berkeley Daily Gazette. December 11, 1915. p. 3. Retrieved December 22, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. 1961. p. 563.
- ^ Cadman, Charles Wakefield (1933). From the land of sky-blue water. Harold B. Lee Library. Boston : White-Smith Music.
- ^ Andrews, Ruth (1928-12-10). "Zhay Clark, Noted Harpist, Will Appear in Christmas Concert with Cianfoni Band". Santa Ana Register. p. 4. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ MSMC Registrar (1931). Summer Session June 29-August 1, 1931. Los Angeles Mount St. Mary’s College Libraries. Mount St. Mary's College.
- ^ "Concert". The Los Angeles Times. 1931-06-28. p. 22. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Hubbert, Julie (2011-03-02). Celluloid Symphonies: Texts and Contexts in Film Music History. University of California Press. pp. 142–143. ISBN 978-0-520-24101-5.
- ^ Put Your Dreams Away: A Frank Sinatra Discography. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2000. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0-313-31055-3.
- ^ "Film Score Monthly CD: On Dangerous Ground". Film Score Monthly. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ "Film Score Monthly CD: Beneath the 12-Mile Reef". Film Score Monthly. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ "Film Score Monthly CD: Thing From Another World/Take the High Ground!, The". Film Score Monthly. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ Moor, Weyert A. (2005-11-16). "Through the air". Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project, Santa Barbara Library Department of Special Collections, University of California. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
- ^ "Weyert Moor (obituary)". Pasadena Independent. 1959-08-25. p. 15. Retrieved 2019-12-22 – via Newspapers.com.
