Common Sense: HARSH

It took a number of years for Ed Harsh to reach his New York City home. His first eighteen years were spent in happy relative normalcy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A saga of formal education followed, with stops at familiar East Coast conservatories and universities. After a brief but highly significant sojourn in Amsterdam, he found himself using his motley assemblage of educational certifications employed in New York as the Managing Editor of a new complete edition of Kurt Weill's music. Eight years passed. He then moved on to his present position at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. On many occasions he has published articles and reviews on various musical topics. He has also won some composition prizes, ranging from the obscure to the faintly recognizable, but he doesn't believe in such things anymore. Luckily, during his trek through academia he was exposed to the wisdom of some important teachers, including composers Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, and Robert Hall Lewis, as well as music scholar Mark Tucker. That wisdom will continue to be of inestimable value to him as his life proceeds.

Contact him at eharsh@newmusicusa.org.

accomodating commonplaces Excerpt from Common Sense

"accomodating commonplaces celebrates the latent significances of the unashamedly prosaic."

authentically classic
Excerpt from The Shock of the Old

"If one of our Composer Hero Geniuses were restored to life in our times, would he diversify his creative product to gain exposure for his intellectual property portfolio to emerging markets of great risk but explosive growth potential?

Or would he just be appalled?"

dan BECKER