Joel Harrison is a composer, guitarist, and vocalist who has put a unique compositional touch on a number of different musical styles. Joel was born in Washington, D.C. and studied with Joan Tower at Bard College (BA 1980). During the 1990s, Joel worked in jazz while living in San Francisco; he then moved to New York City in 1999, where he continued to experiment with jazz, contemporary classical, Appalachian, blues, African, and Indian styles.Joel has won awards for his jazz and percussion compositions. He has twice been selected as the winner of the Jazz Composer's Alliance Julius Hemphill Composition Competition, and has been the recipient of commissions from Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, the Cary Trust, NYSCA, Jerome Foundation, and others. He has also worked with a number of musical greats, including Dave Liebman, Norah Jones, David Binney, Jamey Haddad, Dan Weiss, Dewey Redman, Uri Caine, Todd Reynolds, Wendy Sutter, Christian Howes, and Caleb Burhans.
Bachovich carries three great Harrison percussion compositions. His marimba solo Fear of Silence won the 2007 PASIC Composition Competition and Why Has the Hunter Not Returned? for marimba duo won first place in the 2009 Ironworks Percussion Duo Composition Competition. Bachovich also carries Harrison's Faith in Nights for Percussion Quartet and Piano. Click on the links to read more about and hear clips of each of Joel's diverse compositions.
Happy Holidays Joel. We look forward to more percussion compositions in 2010!
