Craig Harris is a composer, multimedia artist, and non-profit arts consultant. He creates work for concert performance, performance art, dance, multimedia and art installation.

Craig Harris is a composer, new media artist, writer and consultant in the non-profit arts community, with expertise in organizational development, strategic planning, fund development, project management, program development, creative facilities development and new media arts. His artwork includes works for concert performance, music theater and performance art, dance, video, multimedia and art installation. His book "Art and Innovation," documenting collaborations between artists and research scientists at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), was released in June 1999 by MIT Press. His electroacoustic work, "The Hill Has Something to Say," commissioned by soprano Renée Fleming, was premiered in Alice Tully Hull in May 2000.

His background includes serving as President of the International Computer Music Association, and he's also former Executive Director of Leonardo, the International Society for Arts, Sciences and Technology, former Executive Editor of the Leonardo/MIT Press electronic journal Leonardo Electronic Almanac, and contributing author for the Leonardo Book Series. Craig received his Ph.D. and Master of Music degrees in Composition at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, where he facilitated in the development of their Computer Music Studio.

Mr. Harris is currently the Managing Director of The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. He served as Executive Director for the Minneapolis-based dance theatre company - BALLET of the DOLLS, and as Executive Director of THE RITZ THEATER FOUNDATION, where he completed a major renovation project converting a historic 900-seat movie theater into a 240-seat multi-use performing arts venue. Former Twin Cities clients include Artspace Projects, Inc., Bell Museum of Natural History, the Minnesota Orchestral Association, and Sutton + Associates.

Education
Ph.D. 1986 - Music Composition: Eastman School of Music
Master of Music 1983 - Composition: Eastman School of Music
Bachelor of Music 1976 - Composition: University of Toronto

Faculty Positions
Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester: Visiting Assistant Professor in Composition; Acting Director of the Computer Music Studio
University of Michigan School of Music: Visiting Assistant Professor in Theory
Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester: Research Associate

Selected Awards, Exhibitions and Credits
"The Five Books - First Series," a multimedia oratoria commissioned by the Sabes JCC Center for Jewish Arts and Humanities 2007-2008 Season.
"Sleeping Beauty," performed by Ballet of the Dolls at the Dance Factory in May 2003).
"The Red Shoes," a full length ballet commissioned by Ballet of the Dolls, for piano, violin and electronic soundscape (2001)
"Leonardo Live," a multimedia performance work commissioned by the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Walker Art Center for production at the Science Museum?s new facility opening celebration, and at a Walker Art Center First Free Saturday event (2000)
"The Hill Has Something to Say," commissioned by soprano Renée Fleming, for soprano, piano & amphora (1999). "The Hill Has Something to Say" was underwritten by the American Composers Forum, with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation, and by the Hanson Institute for American Hanson Institute for American Music.
Nautilus Music Theater Composer-Librettist Studio Participant, 1997.
International Symposium on Electronic Art 1996 - presentation of Galileo's First Glimpse, a video created from a live, interactive collaboration with Lorren Stafford.
Creative Residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts: Produce Threshold videotape (1986); Produce Configurable Space documentary materials (1989)

My musical background includes composition and performance experience in many musical genres, merging the historical with the modern, with both formal training and practical experience. Rooted in traditional compositional techniques, and informed by the wealth of styles and genres experienced during my lifetime, my music reflects my personal reflections on the work and era in which I exist. Having studied, written and performed tonal, modal and polytonal music; explored serial, set theoretic and aleatoric systems; and employed classical, jazz and popular styles, my work contains all of these elements. I have worked with a variety of electronic music elements since 1965, and extensively with computer-based music and multimedia systems since 1980, a relationship with technology that has had an enormous impact on my creative development. My use of computer based creative systems can be described by the following key characteristics:

+ employing recorded natural sounds - both instrumental and sound from the environment, both in their natural form and altered;
+ incorporating computer-based instruments, scoring and sound realization systems, developed and refined over many years, for processing, manipulating and performing selected sonic source material;
+ creating soundscapes and sonic narratives combining prescribed scoring and collage techniques, often employing explicit or abstract programmatic elements, and sculpting multiple layers of material into a rich and evolving sound environment; and
+ composing works that frequently include both live traditional instruments with the electronic soundscapes to produce electro-acoustic pieces.

I frequently work with artists specializing in other media to create immersive aesthetic experiences, such as dance-theater, music theater, video & multimedia, and installation. I find this collaborative experience thoroughly rewarding and effective in terms of realizing my own artistic vision, in interacting with a wide range of creative and performing artists, and in engaging diverse audiences. It is in this convergence of musical, performative and experiential elements that I find my aesthetic most effectively represented.

The Five Books - First Series: a multimedia oratorio
The Sleeping Beauty Ballet Suite
The Red Shoes Ballet Suite