Born in Illinois, Clark grew up in
Ottawa, Illinois in a century-old farmhouse just southwest of Chicago. Clark's father, also named Keith, was a high school teacher and folk singer and instrumentalist who travelled around the midwest collecting folk songs, much in the way that Bartok and Kodaly had done earlier. His father was a close friend of
Pete Seeger, whom he met in New York City while making recordings for
Folkway Records. They later attended classes at
Harvard University together, including a class taught by the poet
Robert Frost, played on the same softball team, and spent time together with the author
Truman Capote. His father sometimes played as a member in Seeger's band. Clark's father turned the family's large barn into a theater that seated several hundred people for public performances. The theater became a popular stopping place for many of the great American folk musicians in the 1950s and 1960s, including Seeger, during the
American folk music revival, and was also used as a venue for artists who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era or to non-white entertainers who were discriminated from performing prior to the
Civil Rights Act. He displayed an early talent for composing music, and published his first piece at the age of 18. At the age of 19 he became
Roger Wagner's assistant, serving as accompanist to the
Roger Wagner Chorale while an undergraduate student at the
University of California, Los Angeles. During this time he lived with composer
Roy Harris from whom he rented a room. While working with Wagner, Clark had the opportunity to work with
Zubin Mehta. Mehta convinced Clark to take a year studying music in Europe, and then come back to UCLA and study with him. Taking his advice and utilizing Mehta's connections, he studied music composition and conducting with
Franco Ferrara in Siena and
Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. He then decided to remain in Europe to complete his undergraduate studies in music composition and conducting at the
Accademia Musicale Chigiana where he earned diplomas in both subjects and was awarded the schools' Conducting Prize. He later pursued graduate studies at the Vienna Music Academy (now the
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) as a
Fulbright Scholar, and returned to
UCLA where he earned his Doctorate in music theory. ==Career==