Discipline: Music Composition

Harold Morris

Discipline: Music Composition
MacDowell Fellowships: 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1942, 1947, 1952
Harold Morris (1890-1964) was an American pianist, composer, and educator. He toured extensively as a recitalist and soloist and his compositions were performed frequently during his lifetime. He made his New York concert debut in January 1921 at Aeolian Hall with a program of Brahms, Busoni, Chopin, Godowsky, Cyril Scott, and Charles T. Griffes. On November 21, 1931, Morris was the piano soloist for a performance of his Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Morris' composition Poem was performed by violinist and conductor Eugène Ysaÿe in Cincinnati, Ohio with the Cincinnati Orchestra on November 29, 1918. Morris taught at the Juilliard School of Music from 1922 to 1939, at Columbia University from 1939 to 1946, and at The Castle School in Tarrytown, New York. Morris also taught at his studio in Manhattan, at Rice Institute (1933), Duke University (1939–40), and the University of Texas. Morris was one of the principal founders of the American Music Guild in New York in 1921. He served as United States director of the International Society for Contemporary Music from 1936 to 1940. From 1937 to 1963, Morris served variously as vice president and program committee chairman of the National Association of American Composers and Conductors.

Studios

Watson

Harold Morris worked in the Watson studio.

Built in 1916 in memory of Regina Watson of Chicago, a musician and teacher, this studio was donated by a group of her friends, along with funds for its maintenance. Originally designed to serve as a composers’ studio with room for performance, Watson was used as a recital hall for chamber music for a…

Learn more