James Harvey holds a Master of Music Brass Instruments from Ithaca College USA (1971) and a Master of Music Research (2017) from Griffith University Queensland Conservatorium in Australia,; where he is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in tuba performance practice.
The MMR thesis, Elder Music, Instrumental Music Performance and Affirmative Aging is an exploration of mature music making experienced through a return to accomplished classical tuba performance following a 24 year hiatus.
The current DMA project is entitled: Elucidating the Sound of It, A Performance Philosophy of Contrabass Tuba Orchestral in Symphonic Wind Ensembles
Prior to departing teaching and orchestral music performance, for a quarter century, James had been an active educator, recitalist, chamber musician. and orchestral musician. An early ”portfolio musician” he was the founder of Aries Brass (1972 – 1987), an ensemble that later became Artists in Residence at St John Cathedral in Denver Colorado. Presenting their own annual concert series and performing with the cathedral choirs and organists at cyclical Christmas and Easter (multiple) services and special ceremonial events such as a visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie. An excellent, long term gig that saw the quintet also touring in Colorado, playing at music festivals and performing live radio broadcasts from the Denver Botanic Gardens for Denver Public Radio that included a live performance, digital-satellite, broadcast on National Public Radio to 240 affiliates stations.
At this same time, James was teaching low brass at the University of Colorado in Boulder and later, also at the University of Wyoming in Laramie; presenting recitals and playing in the respective faculty brass quintets. As a ‘free-lance” player in Colorado James was also principal tuba with several orchestras: Arapaho Philharmonic Orchestra, Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Central City Opera, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Denver Chamber Orchestra and 2nd tuba with the Denver Symphony Orchestra.
James was also interested and active in “performance art” as co-founder, with author, film maker and musician Antero Alli, in creating the performance art
group Ursa Major, presenting a series of mythically informed, improvised, music-theatre rituals: Zero ~ Between O & 1 ~ Life After Zero.. These experimental programs were performed locally and at the University of Colorado World Events Conference. Ursa Major also produced and performed several experimental multimedia full dome theatre shows in Fiske Planetarium at the university. Life in Boulder was exciting, good and stimulating.
Prior to Colorado James had attained a Master of Music ,Brass Instruments. A performance degree in horn, trombone and tuba at Ithaca College in upstate New York. Here, the esteemed performer, conductor and educator Walter Beeler was conducting, in his final year, as band director at the conservatory . Walter Beeler exerted great influence through his musicianship and love of the concert band genre; an inspiration and heritage still shaping James performance interests and research to this day.
A convert from the trumpet, in his second year of undergraduate study, James initial tuba teacher was John Robert Smith (Eastern Michigan University) who introduced him to the instrument. James Linn (Ithaca College School of Music) continued the process and suggested performing the Hindemith Sonata for his MM recital on horn, trombone and tuba in 1971; a work that felt like an old friend when reprised forty-four years later in James 2015 MMR recital Second Wind.
Advanced tuba study came from several artist-teachers: Cherry Beauregard (Eastman School of Music) Wes Jacobs (Detroit Symphony) Abe Torchinsky (University of Michigan) and finally with Arnold Jacobs in Chicago in attending Mr Jacobs week long masterclass at North western University and subsequent private study at his downtown studio.. Jake’s philosophic and metaphoric approach to the production of wind and bass sound, combined with his ultra resonate tone and musical playing opened expansive, imaginative potentialities in tuba performance that continue to inform James praxis to this day.
In the mid 1980’s James was introduced to the didjeridu, by a flute graduate student at the university of Colorado saying:: “... this is an instrument I think you would be interested in ...” (as he rudely interrupted a tuba lesson in progress). Indeed, this statement was obviously true, both musically and inter-personally. James immediately and intuitively associated the sound of didjeridu with an unforgettable, numinous, chthonic resonance that he had repeatedly heard-felt within a recurring, childhood dream. A ecstatic experiential phenomenon he had labelled ‘the sound of IT ...’
A passionate interest in didjeridu ensued, as James integrated the instrument and its sound into brass chamber music concerts, recitals, and concerts of free improvisations in performative storytelling. In the summer of 1988, a three-week trip to Australia was carved out of a busy freelance schedule in order to seek a proper aboriginal didjeridu of his own. This journey turned into a three-month quest that resulted in being invited into aboriginal Arnhem Land, given a traditional, ceremonial, didjeridu and told to “Take this back ... play it for your people ...”
Returned home to Boulder James record a CD of didjeridu music – Earth Dreaming Dance - with a local multi-instrumentalist friend and Grammy winner Tom Wassinger. The following year, in 1989, he returned to Australia and Arnhem Land in order to prove that the first trip was just a fluke and ‘beginners’ luck’ . Instead, discovering even deeper personal resonances and novel, provocative, possibilities. Two more CD’s followed with a field trip recording being made across Australia into Arnhem Land, with Tom Wasinger, entitled: Track to Bumbliwa (Silver Wave Records, 1991, Boulder, Colorado). Later Arnhem Land field recordings of traditional aboriginal music became Andhannaggi, the Walker River Clan Songs (CAAMA Records, 1995, Alice Springs, Northern Territory).
For nearly 10 years James perused the adventure, privilege and responsibility of organizing and guiding cultural tours into Arnhem Land and Central Australia. Traditional culture and bush tucker excursions presented by his aboriginal family and friends, that were intended for vetted, invited guests from overseas and Australia. These were progressive, first world (sic.) people given a rare opportunity to travel deep into traditional aboriginal Arnhem Land, offered an experience of: Land, Law & Dreaming. Learning about bush tucker, bark painting and fabric arts, didjeridu instrument harvesting and crafting, and invited to attend and participate in traditional community ceremonies conducted by Elder aboriginal associates. This work and activity later evolved into further cross-cultural arts and community
health initiatives – The Sugarman Project - while living in Alice Springs in Central Australia.
These creative episodes in aboriginal Australia - plus further decades exploring digital media in radio, audio recording, sound design and video production - are not a theme of the current DMA project. While, however, also being a back story informing its metaphoric, mythic, philosophical and psychological approach to the topic of bass sound in symphonic performance. How these concepts resonate with the research at hand remains in the collective subtext to this personal, musical and psychological harvest of information arising from a lifetime of performative experiences and intuitions concerning the production of bass sound; specifically by the tuba in large symphonic wind ensemble music. These experiences in aboriginal Australia have no ‘meaning’ in and of itself for others - who were not there - but they do have an influence and inspire the creative work at hand in this thesis: Elucidating the Sound of It ...
Not your usual resume; but artistic and informative non-the-less ...
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