F. Clark Grogan grew up in Clearwater, Florida where his involvement with music began at an early age with his participation in church vocal and bell ensembles.  These activities continued into his teens when lessons on the guitar turned his ear to the music of Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, and John Coltrane.  It was because of this interest in serious improvisational music that Mr. Grogan was encouraged to pursue jazz studies at The University of North Texas (UNT).

    As an undergraduate student at UNT, Mr. Grogan wrote, arranged, and transcribed music for a contemporary jazz quintet specializing in the music of Carla Bley, Don Grolnick,Weather Report, Vital Information, and many others.  In addition to his involvement with improvisational music, he was beginning to be exposed to the compositional methods of contemporary classical music.  Due to an increasing interest in contemporary classical music, Mr. Grogan began to pursue a degree in Music Theory while continuing his involvement with jazz music.

    After graduating from the University of North Texas in 1989, Mr. Grogan began to broaden his musical experiences in Columbus Ohio. He continued to be active as an improviser with the Wirewood Duo.  An acoustic bass and jazz guitar duo dedicated to performing standard jazz repertoire in intimate spaces throughout central Ohio.   Shortly after moving to Columbus Mr. Grogan was accepted to the Graduate Program in Music Composition at The Ohio State University.  Compositions written at OSU include String Quartet 1 and 2, Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo, Waltz for Frances for Jazz Tentet.

   While pursuing a graduate degree in Music Composition at The Ohio State University, he was employed as Assistant to the Music Director at St. Joseph Cathedral (a focal point of religious and art music in Columbus)

   At the Cathedral, his duties included supplying a 40-voice choir and a myriad of ensembles with any arrangements or additional instrumental parts that were needed for their ambitious concert season.  The ensembles ranged in instrumentation from organ, string orchestra, brass quintet, to chamber orchestra. 

    In May of 2000, Mr. Grogan moved to Seattle Washington.  Within just a few months, he was guitar chair in the Issaquah Jazz Orchestra (later to be known as the Hal Sherman Monday Night Jazz Orchestra), teaching guitar students for Bellevue Community College, performing at events all over the east side with a reformed Wirewood Duo, and was hired as the first guitar instructor at the newly opened Plateau Music in Issaquah.  Since 2000 Clark Grogan has performed hundreds of jobs with Wirewood Duo, Innerplay Guitar Duo and the Sammamish String Duo.  These corporate, wedding, and easy listening playing jobs have been at many of the east side’s most exclusive spaces such as Sahalee, Salish Lodge, Newcastle, Glendale and many, many more.

    Mr. Grogan’s current activities include private teaching from Music Works Northwest , The Ballard Academy of Music and Dance, and work on a CD of contemporary jazz compositions  titled “Digerati” to be released in early 2010.