Ross Harris
Ross Harris (Arts Laureate 2014) is a freelance composer of art music based in Wellington NZ. In 2005 - 6 he was Composer in Residence with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra during which time he wrote his first two symphonies. In 2008 - 2009 he was Composer in Residence at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, producing his Symphony No. III, Variation 25 for string quartet for the New Zealand String Quartet and a song cycle The Floating Bride, with words by Vincent O'Sullivan.
Over the last few years there have been premieres of his Symphonies 4, 5,and 6, of his Violin Concerto with Anthony Marwood and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and his Cello Concerto with Li-Wei Qin and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2017 his mini-Cantata "Face" was premiered in the Auckland Town Hall with conductor Antony Hermus, VoicesNZ choir, the APO and a lineup of solo vocalists; "Face" is a setting of words by Vincent O'Sullivan.
Harris also performs in and writes for The Kugels, a klezma group with vocalist, a vehicle for his abiding interest in the pre-WW2 folk music of the Warsaw ghetto and other music from Jewish folk traditions.
