American viola and viola d’amore player Clifton Harrison has performed as a chamber musician, recitalist, and in orchestras throughout Europe, the United States, Central America, and Asia. He is the viola player in the acclaimed Kreutzer Quartet with whom he has recorded extensively. As a member of the quartet, Clifton is currently artist-in-residence at Oxford University. He has been artist-in-residence at Goldsmiths, Southampton, and Bath Spa University and continues a close association with the Royal Northern College of Music.

Parallel to his quartet duties, Clifton regularly gives masterclasses, workshops, and lectures worldwide on viola performance, chamber music, professional development and topics surrounding his main research areas. He is frequently invited on a number of judging panels, most recently for PRS Foundation, Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and Ivors Composer Awards. An avid freelance viola player, Clifton has worked with many UK ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, London Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and most of London’s period performance ensembles. Clifton also records regularly for film, television and video game soundtracks. He has toured worldwide with countless classical ensembles as well as performed with popular artists as wide-ranging as Eric Clapton, Björk, Laura Mvula, the James Taylor Quartet, Michael Kiwanuka, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Thom Yorke, Dermot Kennedy, Jonny Greenwood, Ellie Goulding and Mumford & Sons. Clifton has been heard in festivals throughout the world, from the muddy fields of Glastonbury to the EFG London Jazz Festival, Ghent Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, and London’s BBC Proms.

As a researcher, Clifton focuses on two distinct areas: Seventeenth and eighteenth century viola d’amore music from the Germanic region, and Black, Asian and ethnically diverse classical and contemporary composers/sound artists.

Clifton is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, America'‘s oldest and most prestigious boarding school for the arts. This was followed by studies at the Juilliard School with Dorothy Delay (violin) and Karen Tuttle (viola) and at the Royal Academy of Music with Yuko Inoue (modern viola) and Jane Rogers (baroque viola).

In 2019, the Governing Body and the Honours Committee of the Royal Academy of Music elected Clifton Harrison Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM). This honour is awarded to a select number of former students who have made a significant contribution to the music profession.

Recent releases are on the Hyperion, Universal Music, Sony, NAXOS, Warner Music, Navona Records, NMC Records, Métier, and Signum Classics labels.