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.

Albums

Mind & Machine, Volume Two

Release Date: September 14, 2018
Catalog Number: RR7997
21st Century
Avant-Garde
Chamber
Electroacoustic
Electronic
MIND & MACHINE VOL. 2 is the second electro-acoustic compilation to be released on Ravello Records. Each of the seven composers featured on MIND & MACHINE VOL. 2 offers his or her own striking exploration into the means by which technology can be used to alter time and form to create entirely new musical experiences. This diverse assortment of composers have all taken different paths to reach that goal. The sounds of nature are manipulated or integrated into pieces such as Tom Prescott’s The Singing Forest and Jennifer Bernard Merkowitz’s Les Crapauds de la Fontaine, while Joshua Tomlinson’s Convergences utilizes the natural elements of metal and wood.