Donald Harris (composer)

Donald Harris (born April 7, 1931 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is an American composer who taught music at The Ohio State University for 22 years. He was Dean of the College of the Arts from 1988 to 1997.[1]

Harris earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Music from the University of Michigan. He completed further studies at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Centre Français d'Humanisme Musical in Aix-en-Provence. He studied with Ross Lee Finney, Max Deutsch, Nadia Boulanger, Boris Blacher, Lukas Foss, and André Jolivet. He founded the Contemporary Music Festival at Ohio State in 2000.[2] Prior to joining the faculty at Ohio State, he served on the faculties and as an administrator of the New England Conservatory of Music [3] and the Hartt School of Music.[4] From 1954 to 1968, Harris lived in Paris, where he served as music consultant to the United States Information Agency and produced the city's first postwar Festival of Contemporary American Music.[5] A documentary about Harris entitled Sonata 1957 was produced by Daniel Beliavsky through opus1films in 2011.[6] It explores Harris’ development in mid 20th-century Paris, when pre-war musical thought bridged with post-war experimentation.

Works

Compositions

Stage Works

Awards and Honors

Harris was awarded a Fulbright Award in 1956, the Prince Rainier III of Monaco Composition Award in 1962 (deuxieme mention), a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1966, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant in Composition in 1974, the A.C. Fuller Award of the Julius Hartt Musical Foundation in 1988, and the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award in 1989 (for co-editing The Berg Schoenberg Correspondence [26]). He received commissions with the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation (Library of Congress), Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation (Library of Congress), St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Radio France, Cleveland Orchestra, Goethe Institute (Boston), Boston Musica Viva, Connecticut Public Radio, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Arnold Schoenberg Institute, and Festival of Contemporary American Music at Tanglewood.[27] In 1991, he received an award in composition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which led to a retrospective recording of his work on the CRI label in 1994.[28] In 2011, he was the featured composer of the Contemporary Music Festival at The Ohio State University, a festival which he founded. The King Arts Complex honored him with a Legends & Legacies award in October 2011.[29] He received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Ohio State in June 2012.[30]

Further reading

References

  1. http://music.osu.edu/faculty/donald-harris
  2. http://cmf.osu.edu/index.php?p=home
  3. http://necmusic.edu/archives/donald-harris
  4. http://www.sai-national.org/home/ComposersBureau/HarrisDonald/tabid/326/Default.aspx
  5. The Ohio State University Archives, Donald Harris Collection (RG: 40/292)
  6. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2059285
  7. publication: Société des Editions Jobert, Paris, 1965; recordings: Geneviève Joy, piano, Recording for the French Radio, 1961; Veronica Jochum von Moltke, piano, New England Conservatory Recording Series, Vol. 7: Schumann, Harris, and Porter Golden Crest NEC-107, 1971; Daniel Beliavsky, piano, recorded at the City College of New York, 2010
  8. publication: Jobert, Paris, 1965; recordings: Paul Zukovsky, violinist, Gilbert Kalish, pianist, CRI¬ S-307, 1973; reissued as CRI CD-666, 1994; Hasse Borup, violinist, Mary Kathleen Ernst, pianist, Centaur 2918, 2008
  9. publication: Jobert, Paris, 1965
  10. publication: Jobert, Paris, 1965; recording: Composers String Quartet, CRI-274, 1972; reissued as CRI CD-666, 1994
  11. publication: Jobert, Paris, 1968; recording: Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Hodkinson, cond., CRI S-274, 1972; reissued as CRI-CD 666, 1994
  12. publication: Jobert, Paris, 1974; recording: Boston Musica Viva, Richard Pittman, conductor, DELOS 25406, 1975; reissued as CD 1011, 1987
  13. publication: Jobert, Paris, 1979
  14. publication: Theodore Presser, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1983; recording: Janice Meyerson, Boston Musica Viva, Richard, Pittman, cond., CRI CD-666, 1994
  15. publication: Theodore Presser, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1983; recording: Veronica Jochum, CRI CD-666, 1994
  16. publication: Theodore Presser, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1979; recording: Susan Davenny Wyner, soprano, Yehudi Wyner, piano, CRI CD-666, 1994
  17. publication: Theodore Presser, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1986; recording: Janice Meyerson, mezzo-soprano, Hugh Hinton, piano, CRI CD-666, 1994
  18. publication: Gunmar Music Inc, 1990
  19. publication: Gunmar Music Inc.1990
  20. publication: Gunmar Music, Inc.1990
  21. publication: Gunmar Music Inc. 1990; recording: Lucy Shelton, OSU Faculty Ensemble, Craig Kirchhoff, cond., CRI CD-666, 1994
  22. publication: Theodore Presser, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 1996; recording: Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Edwin London, cond., CRI CD-666, 1994
  23. publication: Theodore Presser, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 2002
  24. publication: Theodore Presser, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 2002
  25. publication: Theodore Presser, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, 2012
  26. In collaboration with Christopher Hailey and Juliane Brand, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1987
  27. The Ohio State University Archives, Donald Harris Collection (RG: 40/292)
  28. The Ohio State University Archives, Donald Harris Collection (RG: 40/292)
  29. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2011/09/18/annual-king-honorees-chosen-close-to-home.html
  30. http://artsandsciences.osu.edu/news/donald-harris-to-receive-honorary-doctorate

External links