School of Music

  Clarinetist J. David Harris, received his B.M. and M.M.  from the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Robert Marcellus with additional studies at the Blossom Festival School and Sewanee Summer Music Center with James Livingston.

           As principal clarinetist with Baton Rouge Symphony, Sinfonia da Camera, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Harris combines technical mastery, depth of musicality, and a solid ensemble style to his playing. As a soloist, Mr. Harris has won critical acclaim for his elegant and expressive playing and has performed many of the standard concerti by Weber, Mozart, Nielsen, and Bernstein among others.  From 1973 to l983 Harris performed over 100 concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra under such notable conductors as Lorin Maazel, Pierre Boulez, James Levine and Eric Leinsdorf in some of the world's greatest venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Symphony Hall in Boston, and the grand opening ceremonies at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Harris can be heard as the bass clarinetist in the Telarc recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Lorin Maazel. Under the baton of Frederick Fennell, Mr. Harris is the featured first clarinetist on the highly acclaimed recordings of the Cleveland Symphonic Winds. During the summers, he has performed and taught at many music festivals including Sewanee Summer Music Center in Tennessee, Peninsula Music Festival in Wisconsin, Great Music West in Wyoming, Ohio Light Opera in Wooster, Ohio and the ARIA International Summer Academy at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.

           Mr. Harris has recently retired from The University of Illinois after thirty years as its Clarinet Professor. Prior to that he served on the faculties of Louisiana State University, Kent State University, and The Interlochen Arts Academy. He is currently serving as Clarinet Professor at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. Celebrating his fifty first year as a university Professor, Harris' success as a teacher is found in his students who hold positions in universities and orchestras across the country.