Loading details…
Artist
Harold Brown
12+ albums
composerClassicalcontemporary classicalrenaissancemodern classical
about
Harold Brown - violist, composer, teacher, choral director - was born October 31, 1909 in New York City to Rose and Sam Brown (originally Braunstein). While at Columbia College (1925-29). He was the founder of the Renaissance Chorus of New York, the first Renaissance Chorus in America. Harold's musical abilities were recognized and acknowledged by faculty members who referred him to summer resort orchestral jobs as violinist/violist. By the age of twenty, in 1929, Harold was managing and playing in the Columbia University Orchestra under the direction of Douglas Moore. The following year, his composition, the "Christopher Robin String Quartet," won the Bearns Prize, and he was named the Mosenthal Fellow in Composition in 1930. He earned his Master's degree at Columbia University, 1948-49. Over the years, his teachers included L. J. Bostelmann and H. Dittler for the violin, Leonard Bernstein, Seymour Lipkin, Leon Barzin for conducting, and Aaron Copland, Bernard Wagenaar and Rubin Goldmark for composition. He also studied under Nadia Boulanger at École Normale de Musique in Paris in 1930-31 as part of the Mosenthal Fellowship. He often acknowledged the early influence of Herman Katims, elder brother of Milton; this relationship might have contributed in some way to Harold's unique views. Although he took classes with Copland, he also mentioned other composers whose work he was personally attracted to. One was Alexi Haieff, who like Harold, was also drawn to an ancient – in h