Joshua Harris

Joshua Harris holds degrees in music composition from Appalachian State University, Brigham Young University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Texas. He began his career teaching high school band and choir before turning to composition full time. He is currently on the music faculty at Sweet Briar College in central Virginia. Previously he taught at Southeastern Oklahoma State University (2012-13), the University of North Texas (2009-2012), and Brigham Young University (2006-08).

Harris primarily composes music for a variety of chamber groups of both instruments and voices, often incorporating live computer interactivity. His work is grounded in a fascination with visual art, textures, sound spectra, non-linear narratives, and extreme temporal manipulations. It often deals with stasis and obsesses over fleeting, ephemeral moments. Harris’s compositional processes have also been heavily influenced by studio techniques of electroacoustic composers.

He has been commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition (The Wanderer), The Nova Ensemble at UNT (OCT 21 2015), Akropolis Reed Quintet (Geryoneïs), Virginia Wesleyan University, and many individual performers. He also composed the score for the 2017 film King Rat. His concert work has been performed throughout the United States and South Korea. When he is not composing he enjoys writing about art and music, traveling with his wife and two daughters, and thinking about the formal structure of sitcoms.