Bryn Harrison (born 1969 in

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) is a British experimental

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. His works have been widely performed by international ensembles and he was a recipient of the 2013 Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers. He is currently Reader in Composition at the

University of Huddersfield The University of Huddersfield is a public research university located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It has been a University since 1992, but has its origins in a series of institutions dating back to the 19th century. It has made te ...

. His music deals with ideas of repetition and memory by using "recursive musical structures" and sometimes extended durations, such as the 45-minute ensemble work ''Repetitions in Extended Time'' (2008) and the 76-minute piano piece ''Vessels'' (2013).

Education

Harrison initially studied at the

Leeds College of Music Leeds Conservatoire (formerly known as The Leeds Music Centre, the City of Leeds College of Music, and Leeds College of Music) is a higher education music conservatoire based in the Quarry Hill district of Leeds, England. It was founded in 19 ...

(1988–91), before completing a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

under composer

Gavin Bryars Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, Musical historicism, historicism, Avant-garde music, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early lif ...

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body ...

, Leicester. In 1999 he was selected to compete for the

Gaudeamus International Composers Award The Gaudeamus International Composers Award is made by the Gaudeamus Foundation. The prize is awarded yearly, to a young composer at Dutch music concert, ''Gaudeamus Muziekweek''. The Gaudeamus Foundation had held an annual music week of Dutch ...

in the Netherlands. He also studied briefly with Christian Wolff and

Alvin Lucier Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (May 14, 1931 – December 1, 2021) was an American experimental composer and sound artist. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Ar ...

in 2001 at the Ostrava Days in the Czech Republic. He was awarded a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree by the

in 2007.

Career

Harrison established an early relationship with the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, where his music was presented in 1993 and 1995, before he received festival commissions in 1999 and was the festival's featured composer in 2008. Ensembles and soloists who have performed his music include Ensemble recherche,

Klangforum Wien The Klangforum Wien is an Austrian chamber orchestra, based in Vienna at the Konzerthaus, which specialises in contemporary classical music. Founded by composer and conductor Beat Furrer in 1985, it is run on collective principles, having no o ...

, the

London Sinfonietta The London Sinfonietta is an English contemporary chamber music, chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble has headquarters at Kings Place and is Resident Orchestra at the Southbank Centre. Since its inaugural concert ...

, the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

, Apartment House, Plus-Minus, Asamisimasa,

ELISION In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run to ...

, EXAUDI, the pianists Philip Thomas and Mark Knoop, and the violinist Aisha Orazbayeva.

Style

Harrison's work is influenced by the music of

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

. Feldman and Harrison's works share a general quietness and contemplativeness, a static texture and a concern with repetition or, in Harrison's words, "use of recursive musical forms which challenge our perceptions of time and space by viewing the same material from different angles and perspectives." Other composers for whom Harrison has expressed an admiration include

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

Laurence Crane Laurence Crane (born 1961 in Oxford) is a British composer of contemporary classical music. Career Laurence Crane is closely associated with the ensemble Apartment House, who have given over 40 performances of his works. Some performances th ...

, Tim Parkinson, James Saunders, Richard Glover, Howard Skempton, Christopher Fox,

Linda Catlin Smith Linda Catlin Smith (born 1957 in New York City) is a composer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2005 she became the second woman to win the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music. Smith studied composition and theory with Allen Shawn in Ne ...

, Martin Arnold, and Cassandra Miller. Harrison has also been influenced by visual artists such as

Brice Marden Nicholas Brice Marden Jr. (October 15, 1938 – August 9, 2023) was an American artist generally described as minimalist, although his work has roots in abstract expressionism, color field painting. and lyrical abstraction. He lived and worked i ...

Agnes Martin Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was an American abstract painter known for her minimalist style and abstract expressionism. Born in Canada, she moved to the United States in 1931, where she pursued higher education ...

, James Hugonin and the painter and printmaker Mike Walker, with whom he has collaborated. The artwork of

Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in West Norwood, No ...

has been an especially important source for Harrison's work, in works such as ''Six Symmetries'' (2004), in which Harrison traced musical notation from geometric contours similar to those in Riley's 1960s paintings.

Significant works

* ''Passing Light'' (2014) for ensemble and electronics. 40-minute work commissioned by the London Sinfonietta for the Spitalfields Festival. * ''Receiving the Approaching Memory'' (2014) for violin and piano. 40-minute work for violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and pianist Mark Knoop, released on the label Another Timbre. * ''Vessels'' (2012) for piano. Revised to a 76-minute version in 2013, released on the label Another Timbre. *''Surface forms (repeating)'' (2009) for ensemble. Written for

. *''Repetitions in Extended Time'' (2008) for ensemble. 43-minute work commissioned by Plus Minus.

References

External links

* – official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Bryn 1969 births Living people Experimental composers 21st-century British composers