ArtistInfo

Daniel Harris

sax, b, *1943 FR
Musician / Composer
A.k.a. Daniel R. Harris

Daniel Harris (b. 1943) is an American electroacoustic composer, improviser, bass clarinetist and saxophonist, music educator, sound engineer, and Max/MSP/Jitter programmer. After living in New York and France for over thirty years, Harris is currently based in Sarasota, FL. He specializes in solo performances with interactive electronics, as well as designing video interfaces, transducers, and custom audio engineering technology. Apart from the musical career, D.R. Harris has been active as a writer, painter and sculptor: he published two novels and over 100 short stories, and created over 2500 paintings. Born and raised in Chicago, Dan Harris received a diverse musical training in his early years, from The Chicago Symphony Orchestra members, local Chicagoan jazz and new music improvisers, and several instrument builders. Harris earned his degrees from the Eastman School Of Music and Yale University after studying clarinet with Stanley Hasty, Keith Wilson (2) and Jerome Stowell, as well as composition with Mel Powell and Hall Overton. Soon after graduating, Daniel Harris relocated to New York City where he began playing with The American Symphony Orchestra and local avant-garde ensembles. In 1969, Harris studied with Steve Reich at the New School, trying to get away from 'Eastman Gothic' and Yale serial techniques he learned in academia, and re-explore composing as something livid and exciting, like jazz and new music he experienced in Chicago. Reich taught him 'process' as a composition tool, phasing, psychoacoustic properties of repetition and other relevant topics. From 1969 to 1981, Daniel Harris was a professor in composition and new music performance, as well as the Electronic Music Center director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 1982, Harris had been working as an AV/multimedia designer for Sync Sound in New York. Since 1973, Harris has been extensively collaborating with a prominent French electroacoustic composer/inventor Michel Redolfi, designing and building underwater instruments, subaquatic audio mixers, and other electronics for Underwater Music performances. Initially they met at University of Wisconsin-Madison electronic studios, where Redolfi was a visiting researcher/scholar. In 1989, Daniel Harris became an artist-in-residence at the Centre International De Recherche Musicale (CIRM) in Nice, France where he developed subaqueous instruments and sound systems for Redolfi's Sonic Waters, and commissioned several solo works for bass clarinet with electronic extensions, such as Symphony of Extension (1989). Harris continued working with Michel Redolfi, and contributed hardware and software for a few recent performances, including La Citta Liquida at 2006 Venice Biennale (nominated for the Music Golden Lion award), and Nuit Blanche (2006) in Paris. For over thirty years, Harris was a freelance woodwind performer and orchestral soloist, also working extensively as a studio session musician, and active as a free improviser and new music interpreter. Since 1994, Daniel has focused exclusively on the bass clarinet, or bass clarinet with electronic/media extensions in his performances. He frequently appears as a soloist across the United States and Europe, playing with several electroacoustic ensembles, including Trio Rare, Vibrone, Tango Band, and Navigation. As a composer, Daniel Harris wrote over fifty works in various genres, from operas and concertos to chamber music, interactive theatrical systems, and live electronics composition. In 2000, one of his early compositions Music for the Buy-Centennial: Iron Lung for David Kappy, ARP 2000, Tape Delay and Tape (1976) saw a world premiere on Gone CD album.

Instruments

• Saxophone
• Bass

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