John Harbison, composer,  is one of America's  most distinguished artistic figures. Among his principal work are four string quartets,  four symphonies, the cantata The Flight Into Egypt, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1987, and three operas,  including The Great Gatsby, commissioned by The Metropolitan Opera and premiered to great acclaim in December 1999.

Harbison's music is distinguished by its exceptional resourcefulness and expressive range. He has written for every conceivable type of concert performance, ranging from the grandest to the most intimate, pieces that embrace jazz along with the pre-classical forms. He is considered to be "original, varied, and absorbing - relatively easy for audiences to grasp
and yet formal and complex enough to hold our interest through repeated hearings - his style boasts both lucidity and logic" (Fanfare). Harbison is also a gifted commentator on the art and craft of composition and was recognized in his student years as an outstanding poet (he wrote his own libretto for Gatsby). Today, he continues to convey, through the spoken word, the multiple meanings of contemporary composition.

Four major works have recently premiered:   Milosz Songs, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for long-time Harbison champion Dawn Upshaw; the Concerto for Bass Viol, commissioned by the International Society of Double Bassists for a consortium of fifteen  major orchestras; But Mary Stood: Sacred Symphony for Soprano, Chorus, and Strings for the Cantata Singers of Boston; and the sinfonietta Umbrian Landscape for the Chicago Chamber Musicians. Last  season also saw  first performances of Deep Dances,  Abu Ghraib, for cello and piano ( for the Rockport Festival),  Crane Sightings, for violin and strings (Tanglewood), and the New York premiere of Mottetti di Montale (Carnegie Hall). Upcoming premieres include, chamber works for horn quartet and percussion ensemble, and Symphony No. 5 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Other recent works include Songs America Loves to Sing,  for the Atlanta Chamber Players and the Da Capo Chamber Players, Canonical American Songbook (for Albany Symphony), the overture Darkbloom for the Boston Symphony ( celebrating James Levine's inaugural season as music director), Symphony No. 4 (for the Seattle Symphony),  Piano Trio No. 2 (for the Amelia Trio), the motet Abraham (commissioned for the Papal Concert of Reconciliation in Rome in 2004), Requiem (for the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Piano Sonata No. 2 (for Robert Levin), String Quartet No. 4 (for the Orion String Quartet),  Four Psalms (commissioned by the Israeli Consulate for the Chicago Symphony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel), and Partita (a Minnesota Orchestra centennial commission). Revivals of The Great Gatsby took place at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in October 2000 and at the Metropolitan Opera in May 2002.

Several new recordings were released during the 2006-07 season: The Rewaking (String Quartets with Soprano,  Bridge); Partita (American Orchestral Works, Cedille), nominated for a Grammy Award;  John Harbison: Chamber Music (Naxos);  Music of John Harbison, Volumes 1 and 2 (Bridge); and The Amelia Trio: Music of John Harbison (Naxos).  Other recent releases include: Motetti di Montale (Koch), also a Grammy nominee,  Symphony No. 3 (Oehms Classics: Levine/Munich), String Quartet No. 4 (Koch), the Viola Concerto (Albany), the Cello Concerto (Albany), Four Psalms and Emerson (New World), and Variations, Four Songs of Solitude, and Twilight Music (Naxos).  Altogether, more than sixty of his compositions have been recorded on labels such as  Nonesuch, Northeastern, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Decca, Koch, Centaur, Archetype, CRI, Naxos, Bridge, Cedille, and Musica Omnia labels.  A recent release, The Rewaking (a volume of works for string quartet), was named one of top ten classical CDs of 2001 by the New York Times. 

Harbison has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tanglewood, Marlboro, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals, Songfest, and the American Academy in Rome. His music has been performed by many of the world's leading ensembles, and more than 50 of his compositions have been recorded on the Nonesuch, Naxos, Northeastern, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Decca, Koch, Albany, Musica Omnia, Centaur, Archetype, CR, Bridge,  and Musica Omnia labels. Recent releases include Partita for Orchestra (Cedille),  The Rewaking (Bridge), Mottetti di Montale (Koch),  Symphony No. 3 (Oehms Classics: Levine/Munich), String Quartet No. 4 (Koch), the Viola Concerto (Albany), the Cello Concerto (Albany),  Four Psalms and Emerson (New World), and Variations, Four Songs of Solitude, and Twilight Music (Naxos).The Musica Omnia double album  of works for string quartet, was named one of top ten classical CDs by The New York Times. 

As conductor, Harbison has led a number of leading orchestras and chamber groups. From 1990 to 1992 he was Creative Chair with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, conducting music from Monteverdi to the present. In 1991, at the Ojai Festival, he led the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Former music director of the Cantata Singers in Boston, Harbison has conducted many other ensembles, among them the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, and the Handel and Haydn Society. For many years he has been principal guest conductor of Emmanuel Music in Boston, leading performances of Bach cantatas, 17th-century motets, and new music.

Harbison was born in Orange, New Jersey on 20 December 1938 into a musical family. He was improvising on the piano by five years of age and started a jazz band at age 12. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard University and earned an MFA from Princeton University. Following completion of a junior fellowship at Harvard, Harbison joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where, in 1984, he was named Class of 1949 Professor of Music; in 1994, Killian Award Lecturer in recognition of "extraordinary professional accomplishments;" and in 1995 he was named Institute Professor, the highest academic distinction MIT offers to resident faculty. He has also taught at CalArts and Boston University, and in 1991 he was the Mary Biddle Duke Lecturer in Music at Duke University. Furthering the work of younger composers is one of Harbison's prime interests, and he serves as president of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music. 

In 1998, Harbison was named winner of the Heinz Award for the Arts and Humanities, a prize established in honor of the late Senator John Heinz by his wife Teresa to recognize five leaders annually for significant and sustained contributions in the Arts and Humanities, the Environment, the Human Condition, Public Policy and Technology, and the Economy and Employment. Among other awards Harbison has received are the Distinguished Composer award from the American Composer's Orchestra (2002), the Harvard Arts Medal (2000), the American Music Center's Letter of Distinction (2000), the Kennedy Center Friedheim First Prize (for his Piano Concerto), and a MacArthur Fellowship in 1989. He also holds four honorary doctorates.

Much of Harbison’s violin music has been composed for his wife Rose Mary, with whom he serves as artistic director of the annual Token Creek Chamber Music Festival on the family farm in Wisconsin,  where much of his music has been composed. Harbison’s music is published exclusively by Associated Music Publishers.  A complete works list can be found at www.schirmer.com.

(December  2007)

Please contact:  Sarah Schaffer, Assistant to Mr. Harbison, 608-836-7638 or 608-217-6786, slschaffer@wisc.edu

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