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James Harp
Biography
James Harp is well known in the Baltimore area as a pianist, organist, stage
director, singer, composer, lecturer, writer and conductor. He began his musical
career at age 7 as a church soloist, and has concertized in Italy, France,
Greece, Israel, the Bahamas, and extensively throughout his native Southern
United States. Among his more unusual musical experiences include singing “My
Old Kentucky Home” as a soloist on National Television at the 1981 Kentucky
Derby, coaching Lily Tomlin in arias from AIDA for an Emmy-nominated “Homicide”
segment, and nearly drowning after falling backwards into the Sea of Galilee
while conducting madrigals.
He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees
from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He has been the Artistic Administrator
of the Baltimore Opera Company since 1989 and has been the Chorus Master since
1993. Since 1983 he has served as organist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra,
and since 1987 has been the Cantor (Organist/Choirmaster) for Baltimore’s
historic St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, where he also serves as Artistic Director
of the St. Cecilia Society Concert Series. He formerly served as Music Director
of the Baltimore Men’s Chorus from 1989-1995 and was the accompanist for the
Baltimore Symphony Chorus from 1982-1999.
Knowledgeable in many areas of music, he
has lectured extensively on opera in many venues, including the Towson Arts
Festival, the Maryland Opera Society, the Biblical Archaeology Society, and the
Joy of Opera Series. He is on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of
Continuing Education where he lectures on the repertory of the Baltimore Opera.
Successful as a writer of operatic children’s programs, he and his work PUPPETS
& PAGLIACCI were featured on a PBS documentary. His reworking and staging of
Puccini's GIANNI SCHICCHI, changed from Florence, Italy in 1299 to Florence,
Alabama, in 1929 and retitled THE TALE OF JOHNNIE S. KICKEY, has been well
received and performed in several regional opera companies and universities. He
has served on several national advisory boards as a consultant and advocate for
arts agencies.
As a stage director he has directed many
operas for Artscape, Baltimore’s summer festival of the arts, including THE
MEDIUM, TOO MANY SOPRANOS, SLOW DUSK, and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. He has directed
THE SORCERER with the Young Victorian Opera Company, and most recently staged
his version of THE ELIXIR OF LOVE, transplanted to Tennessee during Prohibition,
for Anne Arundel Community College.
Sought after as an orchestral musician
and accompanist, he has been featured as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra in works ranging from Saint-Saens ORGAN SYMPHONY to Lloyd Webber’s THE
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. He has appeared as continuo (harpsichord/organ) soloist
with many local orchestral and choral groups, where his informed and histrionic
realizations of baroque figured bass have won acclaim. Accompanist to many local
singers, many of whom feature his own compositions, he has also accompanied such
artists as Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes, Licia Albanese, Anna
Moffo, Chris Merritt, Lucine Amara, and Paul Plishka.
An aficionado of gardening, theology,
genealogy and all things Victorian, he lives in the Bolton Hill neighborhood of
Baltimore with his three gregarious pugs, Vivian, Jewell, and Woodrow. |
