Paul Harris studied the clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music with Professor John Davies, winning the August Manns Prize for outstanding playing; composition with Timothy Baxter, and conducting with Maurice Miles. He then went on to study music education at the University of London where he was a pupil of Professor Keith Swanwick.
He now has over six hundred publications to his name; among them The Music Teacher’s Companion, which won the UK Music Industry Award for Best New Book, the Improve Your Scales!, Improve Your Practice!, Improve Your Aural! and Improve Your Sight-Reading! series (published by Faber Music), through which he has assisted thousands of young players worldwide to develop these vital musical skills. He is a gifted composer who writes appealing music for players of all abilities and ages and has written many other works ranging from innumerable short education pieces to seven concertos, a ballet and a children’s opera.
Paul writes regularly for many of the major international music magazines, including Music Teacher, BBC Music Magazine, the ABRSM’s Libretto, and the American ICA Journal. He is in great demand as a workshop and seminar leader and adjudicator in the UK, the USA and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. Paul has also undertaken research into specialist music education for the highly talented (the clarinet prodigy Julian Bliss number among his pupils), an interest that has taken him to many musical institutions around the world.
He is an examiner and adjudicator and is frequently asked to take part in national events including the Chamber Music for Schools Competition, Music for Youth, the BBC Young Musician of the Year and he is a regular judge for Classic FM’s teacher of the Year. He has also recently co-authored (with Anthony Meredith) major new biographies of the British composer Sir Malcolm Arnold (Malcolm Arnold: Rogue Genius), the late Master of The Queen’s Music, Malcolm Williamson (Malcolm Williamson – A Mischievous Muse) and Sir Richard Rodney Bennett.
Paul’s innovative teaching techniques, especially his concept of Simultaneous Learning, have found support all over the world and combine thoroughness, imagination and practicality; the defining qualities of his outstandingly successful work.
Variations on a Cat is one of the clarinet’s most iconic melodies is the cat theme from Prokofiev’s ever-popular Peter and the Wolf. So creating… a fun set of short variations seemed the obvious thing to do. I hope they will delight players, audiences and cats alike!
