Biography
Job Title: Programme Leader: Classical
Courses Taught: BA (Hons) Music (Classical)
Specialisms: Composition, Performance (percussion) and Creative Practice in Context.
Professor Damien Harron is Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Music (Classical). His teaching specialisms include composition, performance (percussion) and Creative Practice in Context.
Before joining the conservatoire, Damien had a highly successful portfolio career as a professional performer, composer and educator.
Damien is a co-founder of BackBeat Percussion Quartet with which he has received numerous awards including the Royal Overseas League Ensemble Prize (UK), the Concert Artists Guild Prize (USA) and the Gold medal at the Osaka Chamber Music Festa (Japan).
Damien has also appeared with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles. As a soloist he has gained a reputation as an adventurous performer of new music with a special interest in the commissioning and performance of theatrical works. Damien is also a member of the cutting edge new music groups Black Hair, Decibel and Noszferatu, appearing regularly as soloist with these groups.
As a conductor, Damien also works in the sphere of new music. Highlights include the conducting of a broadcast on Danish National Radio from the Spor Festival, Aarhus in 2006. In 2017 Damien conducted Leeds Conservatoire’s Chamber Orchestra in a concert that featured Gabriel Prokofiev’s Concerto for Turntables. He also acted as arranger and musical director for Leeds Conservatoire’s collaborations with Marc Almond, conducting concerts at The Royal Festival Hall as well as a live BBC video broadcast.
Damien is an active researcher, having recently completed a translation of one of the major works by the renowned French composer, George Aperghis. Damien received his PhD in composition from the University of York in 2008, where he has taught as a guest lecturer. As a composer, Damien’s work often explores what he considers to be the human element of performance in terms of physicality and theatre. He has also written many works for younger, less experienced musicians alongside professionals (notably his BBC prom commission Carnival of Rhythms for the 2002 Blue Peter Prom). Damien has made recordings for Mode, NMC, NonClassical and Tzadik labels among others. Damien is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been an External Examiner for the RNCM and Birmingham Conservatoire.
Find out more about Damien Harron: Website
