Harris Becker

Guitar / Lute & Baroque Guitar  

Home

Biography

Programs

Listen

Videos

Upcoming

Hutton House Lectures

LIGF

Midsummer Music Dream

Guitar X 2

Rang 4 Productions

Contact
 
 
Harris Becker has had a rich and varied career as a guitarist and lutenist. He has performed extensively both as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Mexico and Canada. His interest in contemporary music has offered him the opportunity to premiere many new solo and ensemble pieces.  Among the composers who have dedicated works to him are Carlo Domeniconi (Guitar x2), Hayley Savage, Raoul Pleskow, Howard Rovics , the microtonal composer Johnny Reinhard, Michael Frassetti, Alan Hirsh and Richard Iacona. In addition to his career as a performer he has been very involved as an educator giving master classes, workshops and lectures. Harris Becker is director of guitar studies at LIU Post he is on the music faculty at Nassau Community College. Mr. Becker has been on the music faculties of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and Director of Music for Mixed Ensembles at the International Institute for Chamber Music at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich. The Florida State Division of Cultural Affairs selected Mr. Becker to be part of Florida's Artist Residency Program, giving lecture/performances on the lute and baroque guitar. In 2007 Mr. Becker received a faculty recognition award for outstanding service from the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Long Island University.  Mr. Becker is Director of the Long Island Guitar Festival, which he founded in 1993. He is also artistic director of a summer music festival in rural Quebec: “Songe d’été en Musique”.  His recordings include “Catgut Flambo” with guitarist Pasquale Bianculli and a solo CD “Passing Through”. “Becker’s performance of this demanding work a depiction of one of Australia’s national parks – is lyrical and imaginative”   Raymond Tuttle, Classical.net. His editions are published by T.D. Ellis Music Publishing and Calavar Music. His arrangement of “Fool On The Hill” has been recorded by Guitar Trilogy.       

      -----
 “…demonstrated considerable technical skill, musical knowledge and expertise....."
Bristol Guitar Society, Bristol England

“He undertook these most challenging works in a variety of styles and succeeded in conveying every nuance and drawing every ounce of feeling out of his selections”
Sunstorm
Long Island, New York
(review of solo debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall)

 “His professional demeanor and thorough musical knowledge, as well as his performance skills are exceptional”
J. D’Addario & Co

“Becker and Bianculli have techniques that are beyond reproach. They eschew bright colors and a brash performance style, and they seem most comfortable with being mellow and quietly insinuating”.
Fanfare  

“All of us enjoyed the unusual program. Your comments about the music and the composers, the wide range from the Renaissance to the modern added to the understanding of the compositions”
Miami- Dade Community College (performing arts series)
 

Harris Becker - Lute & Baroque Guitar December 5, 2010

Charles Dickens Festival

First Baptist Church

Port Jefferson, New York

On a bright and icy winter Sunday, we were treated to a lovely recital of early music presented by Harris Becker, performing on lute and on baroque guitar. The setting was well-suited for such a presentation: early music, with its rich and varied emotions from deep desolation to a dancer’s delight, ringing out from the center of an historic church, recently restored to its mid-nineteenth century glory.

 Mr. Becker selected a number of lute airs to open the program, highlighted by several of John Dowland's better-known works, as well as pieces by Anthony Holborne. Mr. Becker thoughtfully chose pieces that reflected the Elizabethan’s love of all things melancholy, and leavened these with cheerful fancies and galliards.

 The second part of the program featured a number of pieces suited for baroque guitar.

Mr. Becker prefaced the second half of the program with a very informative overview of DeVisee's and DeMurcia’s early, important influence in the development of the guitar as we know it today.

 Mr. Becker’s presentation of these pieces was a study in fluidity and grace, reflecting the atmosphere of the day. In his hands, the voice of his baroque guitar was both crystalline and warm in this intimate setting.

 The program concluded with a rousing rendition of DeMurcia's Fandango, a warm and vibrant coda to this interlude on a frigid winter afternoon.

 Works of this time period can be presented in a studied manner, rendering them lifeless and detached, the ghostly echo of a past unremembered.

Mr. Becker confidently embraces the nuances of the style, rediscovering the spark of the composer’s artistry, and performs these ancient airs with assurance and poise.

 Amy Tuttle

Founding Board of Directors, Long Island Music Hall of Fame

Honorary Board, Folk Music Society of Huntington  

Program Director, Greater Port Jefferson-Northern Brookhaven Arts Council