PEOPLE OF INTEREST
71
Name: Ken Clifton:
Occupation: musical director
of Riverside Theatre in
Vero Beach, Fla.
Age: 45
Family: Single
Hobbies: “I like to read in what
spare time I have. I try to spend
an hour every morning to sit
with my coffee and read. I also like to garden. Something
about getting my hands dirty and knowing that I’m personally
responsible for something whose sole purpose is to just
be beautiful fulfills me.”
What People Don’t Know About me: “That my first major
was journalism (broadcasting) and I only went into music
because I got a scholarship.”
What Inspires Me: “Well, deadlines inspire me to get things
done. Authentic people also inspire me, people that aren’t
afraid to be scared or aren’t afraid to love and laugh. Not
laughing to cover up anything, but because there is joy still in
them, and they have maintained a path to still share that joy
with the world. Nature inspires me. All the diversity in the
world, mountains, flowers, how a dog honestly and consistently
lives in the present.”
People
People
People
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ments and developing children’s shows. For some, a blank
canvas might seem daunting, but for Clifton it is a wonderful
opportunity. “This position means that I get to express that
part of my soul that calls out to be heard in an incubator that
I truly believe in, and it’s the theater. To me that belongs in
the category of words like ‘church.’ It’s a sacred place where
souls are free to dance. That’s been my ‘office’ for years now,”
he says.
What makes Clifton’s story even more like a modern myth
is that he didn’t start playing piano until he was 12 years old,
considered late in the business. His first musical influence
was in church, where his aunt played piano and his mother
sang. It wasn’t long before young Ken was hooked. “My
mom liked that I was interested in the piano, so I had my first
lesson on my 12th birthday, but I had to quit soon because of
money, so I taught myself to play,” he says.
By his senior year in high school, Clifton was playing the
piano very well, but thanks to his English teacher, James
Gilbert, whom he credits with changing his life, it was words
that captured his heart, not “dots” which he calls musical
notes. “Mr. Gilbert introduced me to the power of the story
and why people do what they do, and how come we tell their
stories. It still mystifies me how words wrap around fragments
of the soul and explain why you’re alive,” he says.
While earning his bachelor’s degree from Stetson University,
a school that had recruited him for his musical talent,
luring him away from a journalism major at a community
college, Clifton says he learned how music was another
powerful way to relay a tale. “Storytelling is still my passion,
but I realize ‘dots’ can do the same thing. Music is another
level of storytelling,” he says.
Clifton says how he hopes the Riverside audiences are
inspired by the music he brings to them. “We work really
hard as stewards of this dream to bring you, the audience,
something you can be really proud of. You’re the reason we
do it,” says Clifton. “I honor the writer and storytellers and
whatever God kissed me with because I know it’s bigger
than me.”
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