Title: Robert A. Harris Papers, 1966-2012
More Extent Information
6 letter boxes, 1 score box, 1 oversize box, 2 loose volumes
Abstract
The Robert A. Harris Papers contain concert programs, announcements, and recordings from Harris’s career as a choir director and professor; personal correspondence; Harris’s compositions, both published and unpublished; scores and recordings by other black composers; and materials related to Harris’s research on black music. Harris’s compositions and scores by other composers make up the bulk of the collection.
Administrative/Biographical History
Robert Allen Harris is a composer, conductor of choral music, and choir clinician. He was born in 1938 in Detroit, Michigan. He married Mary Louise Pickens in 1963 and they have one daughter, Shari Michelle. Harris studied at Wayne State University in Detroit and graduated with a BA in music education in 1960 and an MA in music in 1962. He briefly studied at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York before attending Michigan State University, where he graduated in 1971 in PhD in composition and theory.
Harris started his career as a music teacher in Detroit public schools in 1960. From 1964 to 1970, he was an assistant professor at Wayne State; in 1970, he moved to Michigan State, where he taught and served as the Director of Choral Activities until 1977. In 1977, Harris joined Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University as the Director of Choral Organizations and a Professor of Conducting. He stayed there for the rest of his teaching career before retiring in 2012.
Harris is also a composer, mostly of choral music. His work was commissioned by over forty schools, churches, and other organizations. He received several awards for his teaching, including two awards from Northwestern, the School of Music's Faculty Exemplar Teaching Award and the Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award, as well as the Alumni Arts Achievement Award from Wayne State University. Harris has been a part of many professional organizations, including the American Choral Directors Association, the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP), Chorus America, Pi Kappa Lambda National Honor Music Society, and Phi Mu Alpha Profesisonal Music Fraternity. He was also a member and co-chair of the Choral Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts.
