Mark Dover

About Mark

Grammy® Award-winning clarinetist Mark Dover is a man of many horns, maintaining firm roots in classical music while ever-expanding into the vast world of improvised music. Since 2016 he has served as the clarinetist of Imani Winds, and has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Albany Symphonies, and the American Composers Orchestra. Most recently, Dover was awarded a Grammy Award as a player and producer for “Best Classical Compendium” at the 2024 Grammy Awards for Imani Wind’s latest release, Passion for Bach and Coltrane. His debut album with Imani Winds, Bruits, was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance at the 2022 Grammy Awards.

In 2023, Dover also joined the chamber ensemble yMusic. 2023 highlights include appearances at Carnegie Hall Presents with both Imani Winds and yMusic, NPR’s tiny desk with yMusic, and debuts at La Jolla Music Society and Tippet Rise Arts Center.

Dover joined the chamber music faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2021 and also serves on the clarinet faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, and at Queens College, CUNY.

Dover has an extensive background in improvised music. He is a frequent collaborator with Vulfpeck, an American funk band formed in his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dover received his Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan. He is a Buffet Crampon and Vandoren Artist.