Composer John Harbison To Speak At Institute For Advanced Study

Composer John Harbison To Speak At Institute For Advanced Study

Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer John Harbison will discuss his Four Psalms, on November 1 at 4:30 p.m. in West Building Lecture Hall on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study. The lecture is sponsored by the Institute’s Artist-in-Residence Program.

Four Psalms is a work for chorus, orchestra, and vocal soloists. Incorporating four ancient psalms in Hebrew and text from conversations with contemporary English-speaking Israelis, Palestinians, and Bedouins, the work premiered in 1999, and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. “Harbison has created an important and very moving work which draws upon opera, cantata, and symphony with inspiring effect,” says Institute Artist-in-Residence Jon Magnussen. Harbison will describe the development of the work, which will have its New York premiere on November 3 at Carnegie Hall.

Harbison is one of America’s most prominent composers. His cantata, The Flight Into Egypt, which earned him the 1987 Pulitzer Prize, uses the story of the Nativity to explore the situation of the poor and homeless in contemporary society. His opera, The Great Gatsby, was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and premiered in 1999. He has also composed two other operas, A Winter’s Tale and A Full Moon in March; string quartets; symphonies; and a Requiem commissioned by the Boston Symphony.

Harbison did his undergraduate work at Harvard University, and received his M.F.A. from Princeton University. He has been a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty since 1969; he was named Institute Professor in 1995, a title M.I.T. reserves for scholars of special distinction. Among his many honors was a 1989 fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Harbison has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Santa Fe Chamber Festival, the American Academy in Rome, and other ensembles. As conductor, he has led numerous orchestras and chamber groups, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, and the Handel and Haydn Society.

More than 30 of Harbison’s compositions have been recorded on the Nonesuch, Harmonia Mundi, Decca, New World, and other labels.

For further information on the lecture, call (609) 734-8389 or email air@ias.edu.