John Harbison

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John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer and academic.

Contents

Life

John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harbison and Janet German Harbison. The Harbisons were a musical family; Elmore had studied composition in his youth and Janet wrote songs. [1] Harbison's sisters Helen and Margaret were musicians as well. He won the prestigious BMI Foundation's Student Composer Awards for composition at the age of 16 in 1954. He studied music at Harvard University (BA 1960), where he sang with the Harvard Glee Club, and later at the Berlin Musikhochschule and at Princeton (MFA 1963). He is an Institute Professor of music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a former student of Walter Piston and Roger Sessions. His works include several symphonies, string quartets, and concerti for violin, viola, and double bass.

Harbison won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1987 for The Flight into Egypt , and in 1989 he received a $305,000 MacArthur Fellowship. [2] In 1998, he received the 4th annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities. [3] He was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal in 2000. [4] In 2006, a recording of his Mottetti di Montale was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Small Ensemble Performance category.

The Metropolitan Opera commissioned Harbison's The Great Gatsby to celebrate James Levine's 25th anniversary with the company. The opera premiered on December 20, 1999, conducted by Levine, with Jerry Hadley, Dawn Upshaw, Susan Graham, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Mark Baker, Dwayne Croft, and Richard Paul Fink among the cast. [5]

In 1991, Harbison was the music director of the Ojai Music Festival in conjunction with Peter Maxwell Davies. He has served as principal guest conductor for Emmanuel Music in Boston. [6] After founding director Craig Smith's death in 2007, Harbison was named acting artistic director. Harbison and his wife, Rose Mary Harbison, a violinist, ran the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival from 1989 to 2022. [7]

Partial discography

  1. I. It's True, I Went to the Market
  2. II. All I Was Doing Was Breathing
  3. III. Why Mira Can't Go Back to Her Old House
  4. IV. Where Did You Go?
  5. V. The Clouds
  6. VI. Don't Go, Don't Go
  7. Variations i–v
  8. Variations vi–x
  9. Variations xi–xv
  10. Finale and Epilogue
  1. The Flight into Egypt , text from the King James translation of the story of the Flight into Egypt in the Gospel of Matthew
  2. The Natural World: Prelude
  3. Where We Must Look for Help, text from Robert Bly
  4. On the Road Home, text from Wallace Stevens
  5. Milkweed, text from James Wright
  6. Concerto for Double Brass Choir and Orchestra: I. Invention on a Motif: Tempo giusto
  7. II. Invention on a Chord: Cantabile
  8. III. Invention on a Cadence: Molto allegro
  1. Due Libri dei Mottetti di Montale
  2. Snow Country
  3. Chorale Cantata
  4. Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet, and Strings
  1. Ulysses' Bow ballet performed by Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and conducted by André Previn
  2. Samuel Chapter performed by Susan Larson (soprano) and conducted by John Harbison

Works

Operas

Ballet

Orchestral

External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg John Harbison (on his Symphony No. 1), March 22, 1984, 4:20, Boston TV Digital Archive [10]

Choral

Chamber

Vocal

Solo

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References

  1. ↑ "Janet G. H. Penfield". Obituaries. Town Topics . Vol. LVII, no. 4. Princeton. January 28, 2004.
  2. ↑ "John Harbison, Composer and Conductor: Class of 1989". MacArthur Foundation. 1989-08-01. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  3. ↑ The Heinz Awards, John Harbison profile
  4. ↑ "History of the Harvard Arts Medal". Harvard University Office for the Arts. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  5. ↑ Bernard Holland (1999-12-22). "Opera Review: Music Catering To the Words Of Fitzgerald". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  6. ↑ Tom Jacobs (2022-08-08). "John Harbison: From Child Prodigy to Elder Statesman". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  7. ↑ Jeromey Hodsdon (2022-08-27). "Harbisons host final year of Token Creek Chamber Music Festival". Sun Prairie Star. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  8. ↑ Anthony Tommasini (2005-11-06). "Astringent Modernism Below a Romantic Surface". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  9. ↑ Peter Dizikes (2021-11-18). "Q&A: John Harbison on his new album, 'Diotima'". MIT News. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  10. ↑ "Ten O'Clock News; John Harbison", 1984-03-22, 4:20, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed September 23, 2016.
  11. ↑ John Rockwell (1991-03-10). "Review/Music; John Harbison Premiere". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  12. ↑ Daniel J. Wakin (2005-03-24). "Wrestling With a 'Lolita' Opera and Losing". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  13. ↑ Anthony Tommasini (2006-02-25). "When Lyrics Are Fragmentary and Melodies Elusive". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  14. ↑ "Harbison's 'Symphony No. 5' to premiere April 17-18". MIT News. 2008-04-15. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  15. ↑ Peter Dizikes (2012-01-13). "3 Questions: John Harbison on his sixth symphony". MIT News. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  16. ↑ Bernard Holland (2003-03-11). "Music Review: A Requiem Conscious Of Its Debt To the Past". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  17. ↑ "Professor brings papal music to Wind Ensemble". MIT News. 2005-04-27. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  18. ↑ James R. Oestreich (1998-02-05). "Music Review: Portrait of a Composer As Man and Musician". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  19. 1 2 3 Allan Kozinn (2001-01-15). "Music Review: Talk Is Not Cheap When It Comes to New Music". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  20. ↑ Allan Kozinn (2012-04-27). "Inserting the Brand-New Alongside the Old Familiar". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  21. ↑ "John Harbison's "IF" World Premiere". MIT Music & Theater Arts. 2018-10-20. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  22. ↑ Allan Kozinn (2006-07-23). "Classical Recordings: Raw and Dark Contemporary Works, a Nimble Mendelssohn". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  23. ↑ David Allen (2015-02-01). "A Bach Interpretation Springs to Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-05.

Further reading

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