Harries, David, 1933-2003

Person

Harries, David, 1933-2003

1933-2002

David Harries (1933-2002), composer, was born in Portsmouth to Welsh parents on the 24th March, 1933 and spent most of his life in Wales, attending Pembroke Grammar School. In 1952 his Introduction and Allegro Scherzoso for String Quintet was awarded a prize at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Aberystwyth, and he successfully gained a Robert Bryan Music Scholarship to study Music at University College Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating in 1954. He then taught at Ounsdale School, Staffordshire, and at Milford Haven Grammar School before being appointed Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Music at Aberystwyth until 1975, following which he joined the staff of the Welsh College of Music and Drama as Head of the Performer's Course and then as Head of Composition from 1985. He continued to compose until the 1990s. He died on 25th December, 2002. Several of his compositions were published, including commissions for national platforms such as his Opus 25 No.2, Capriccio For Piano Duet (Llys Yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol, 1976), commissioned for the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales, 1968; and his Opus 27, 'Neithiwr', in 'Songs from Wales volume I = Caneuon o Gymru cyfrol 1' (Cardiff: Welsh Music Information Centre, 1990), originally commissioned by the BBC, 1967.

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