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Brian Harman, born in Montréal in 1981, is a composer, pianist, teacher and arts promoter. His music has been described as “
three-dimensional, maybe four-dimensiona
l” (Arthur Kaptainis,
the [Montreal] Gazette
) and “
effective and chilling
” (Richard Todd,
Ottawa Citizen
). Harman’s works explore the relationship between music and our physical or imaginary experience of the world, and are frequently inspired by extra-musical elements, such as human speech, architecture, dance and technology. He has written for a wide variety of media: orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, chamber ensembles, song cycle, solo piano, theatre, modern dance, film music and live electronics.
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Harman’s music has been performed across Canada, in the US, England and Japan. His orchestral work
Supposed Spaces
was recently selected as part of Canada’s submission to the 2013 ISCM Conference. In 2011, he was selected as a winner in the ISCM Vocal Competition, resulting in a commission from the Wiener Jeunesse Kammerchor for performance in Vienna in 2012, and received an honourable mention in the CLC’s 60th Anniversary Composition Competition for his work
Gregarious Machines
. In 2009, his work
Dialectics
was a finalist in the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra’s Composition Competition, and was premiered at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space. In 2008, he was selected by jury to compose a new work for a six-city Canadian tour with the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal+ as part of its Génération program. In 2004, his orchestral work
The Prince
was a finalist in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s New Creations competition.
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Current and upcoming large-ensemble projects include a set of miniatures based on nonsense lyrics for the Wiener Jeunesse Kammerchor (Vienna), an extended work for chamber orchestra for the Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble (Toronto), and a new work for the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra. Chamber music projects include a song cycle for Carla Huhtanen in collaboration with writer David Brock (Toronto), a new ritual-inspired chamber work for New Music Concerts (Toronto), an instrumental septet for 5-Penny New Music Concerts (Sudbury), a storytelling-inspired violin and cello duo for Code d’accès (Montreal), and a flute octet for the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal+ (Montreal).
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Harman is currently composer-in-residence with Montreal’s Ensemble Portmantô. His works have been performed by the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, VivaVoce Montreal, Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal+, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, l’Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne, Trio ’86, Pazzia Contemporary Performing Collective, Ensemble Euterpe and Ensemble Portmantô. He has also collaborated with filmmaker Anne Émond, Italian visual artist and photographer Danilo Ursini, as well as choreographer/dancer Geneviève Bolla and her company Evolucidanse.
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Harman’s other awards include a SOCAN Foundation Award in 2007 and a Composition Award from the Canadian Universities Music Society in 2006. He participated in Rencontres de Nouvelle Musique at Domaine Forget in 2007, the National Arts Centre Composers Programme in 2006, and the Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop’s String Quartet session in 2006. He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the SOCAN Foundation, the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, and the Fonds de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture.
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Harman has received music degrees from the University of Toronto and McGill University, where he is currently completing his Doctor of Music in Composition with Prof. Denys Bouliane. Among his previous composition teachers are Brian Cherney, Larysa Kuzmenko, and Chan Ka Nin. Harman’s research interests focus on late-20th Century Canadian music, with an article for the Montréal-based journal Circuit forthcoming in the fall of 2012. He has also worked extensively as an instructor and a teaching assistant at McGill University, teaching Orchestration, Arranging, Renaissance Counterpoint, and Elementary Harmony and Analysis.
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Beginning in 2008, in collaboration with the Ottawa Chamber Music Society, he developed and conducted a composition and contemporary improvisation workshop for various elementary schools in the Ottawa area, bringing young students into the creative musical process and the world of contemporary music.
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