CAZENOVIA — Rachel Harris, a blind musician and composer, recently participated in the 13th annual Young Composers Corner (YCC) at the First Presbyterian Church of Cazenovia.
Presented as part of the Society for New Music’s 23rd annual Cazenovia Counterpoint festival, the YCC is a free, five-day music composition workshop for multi-instrumentalist middle and high school students from across Central New York.
Harris, who is a rising junior at Mount Markham Senior High School, plays the piano in jazz band and the flute in concert band; she also sings in the school chorus. She has previously participated in both All-County Band and All-County Chorus.
Outside of school, Harris is a self-taught recorder, ukulele, mandolin, accordion, guitar, synthesizer, and theremin player.
She is also a member of Junior B Sharp, a program designed for talented music students in the Utica/Rome area. Through regular monthly meetings, the program gives its members opportunities for solo and chamber music performance, contact with other outstanding area music students, and involvement in special feature programs and workshops presented by guest professionals.
“Nothing fulfills me more than performing and composing music,” Harris said.
The musician, who described herself as possessing perfect pitch, said she learns a new piece of music simply by listening to it multiple times.
“I know there is such a thing as braille notation, but what good is that if you need two hands to read braille and you also need two hands to play an instrument?” she remarked. “I could memorize [the braille], but how could I possibly associate a set of dots with a given frequency?”
Harris recalled that she was just three years old when she taught herself a Mozart piece on the piano, but she did not begin her classical training until she was six. At age ten, she started taking flute lessons from her middle school band director, William Pomares.
“He got me into composition when I was in eighth grade,” Harris said. “Mrs. Thielke, the band director at my high school, has also helped me out with flute playing techniques [and composing].”
During the July 19-23 YCC workshop, Harris further developed her composition skills under the guidance of regional composer Paul Leary, Ph.D. Leary is assistant professor of music at SUNY Oswego, where he teaches electronic music, theory, composition, and popular music.
Harris described her YCC experience as “profound.”
“Composition is way more than a hobby for me, it’s a passion,” she said. “I just love the way the process of composing a new piece feels. It’s as if my mind is swimming around in a sea on tonality.”
During the week, Harris composed an original piano piece titled “Minuet with Variations in G Flat.”
“It has a theme and variations kind of form, but it is in 3/4 time, like a minuet,” she said. “I was influenced by various pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries by composers such as Quantz, Clementi, Bach and Mozart, just to name a few.”
A recording of Minuet with Variations in G Flat, along with other original pieces and covers, is available on the “Rachel Harris” YouTube channel.
All of the works completed during the YCC workshop will be performed on Saturday, July 31 at 4:30 p.m. in Lakeland Park.
Cazenovia Counterpoint receives national attention each year through Chamber Music America, Musical America, NewMusicUSA, and other similar organizations and calendars. The festival is supported through nationally competitive grants, donors and local foundations, including the Syracuse Sounds of Music Association and the Jim & Juli Boeheim Foundation.
For more information on the 2021 Cazenovia Counterpoint festival, visit societyfornewmusic.org.
Founded in 1971, the Society for New Music is dedicated to fostering the continued growth of the Central New York musical community. The Syracuse-based society commissions, performs, and records new works by regional composers, catalyzes artistic connections across Central NY, and expands the audience for new music.
