AJ Harbison Music

AJ Harbison | Composer/Singer/Songwriter

AJ Harbison is a composer and singer/songwriter based in Kansas City, Missouri. His music lives at the intersection of concert music and vernacular music, each bringing unique vitality to the other in a language both adventurous and accessible. Often integrating harmonies and rhythms from pop music with theory, instrumentation, and performance techniques from concert music, while drawing forms and structure from both, his work searches for beauty in brokenness in the space between the already and the not yet. He seeks to create music that is beautiful (displaying a mastery of the craft of composition), true (portraying the world as it really is), and good (enriching the performer and the listener).

Recent News

Letters from the Muse Room #43 (September 2024) September 13, 2024
The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Friday of every other month (though not this time), each issue of Letters from the Muse Room includes news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past two months.

Dear friends,

Happy September! It’s been a long ten months since the last Letter from the Muse Room. But it’s not because the Muse Room has been silent! I’m writing today because I have two new projects to share with you.

First, most of my year thus far has been taken up with writing a new piece for full orchestra. It was commissioned by Kirt Mosier, the music director of the Lee’s Summit Symphony. Kirt commissioned three other composers, as well as himself, to each write a piece for the Lee’s Summit Symphony titled The Haunted Pavilion. (The Symphony plays at the Pavilion at John Knox Village in Lee’s Summit, and the concert’s in October, so… you get the idea.)

[The Pavilion at John Knox Village.]
I had a blast writing my version of The Haunted Pavilion; it’s a spooky and fun piece that features ominous glissandi (slides) and a sinuous waltz melody that unwinds over a slow version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice melody in the bass. Listen to a MIDI clip of the first two minutes of the piece here: https://www.ajharbison.com/wp-content/uploads/thehauntedpavilionopening.mp3.

But MIDI can never do the real thing justice — so if you’re in the Kansas City area at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 12, come to the Pavilion and hear my piece (and three other pieces with the same title)! Just click this button for tickets:

I hope to see you there!

[The first page of The Haunted Pavilion score.]
The second project I’ve been working on (after finishing The Haunted Pavilion) is a reworking of an old project. Nine years ago, my brother, my sister-in-law at the time and I wrote a musical.

[Two brothers excitedly gesturing to a sign advertising the musical they wrote.]
If we were to take another picture today like this one, I would probably be wearing a hat and he probably would not be.

My brother wrote the script, my sister-in-law wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music. It was an enormous project and I had a short time in which to write a whole lotta music — 28 songs, plus underscore and orchestration. I recorded rough vocal demos of all the songs, but because I was pressed for time, they were very rough vocal demos.

I recently was listening back through those vocal demos, and remembering how much I’d liked the music I’d written, and thinking that the one run of performances the show had nine years ago wasn’t enough for how good the material was (the script is REALLY good and the concept is brilliant — ask me about it sometime).

So, I have decided to go back and arrange some of the songs for piano, and lower them (because the role of Saul/Paul is for a tenor, and I am not a tenor), and record them, so I have good recordings and not just very rough vocal demos.

[The opening line of music for the song “The Law and the Prophets.”]
My goal is to finish the composing/arranging by the end of September, and finish the recording by the end of October (and then do a little mixing and mastering after that). So hopefully in two months or so I will have some good recordings of these songs to share with you!

—-

A book that has inspired me over the past several months was one I wasn’t necessarily expecting to agree with, due to its provocative title — Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music by Martha Bayles.

[The cover of Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music by Martha Bayles.]
But I was pleasantly surprised by the book’s incredibly astute evaluation of the popular music of the 20th century. Martha Bayles is extremely insightful and incisive in her observations and analyses, and also has some very funny wry commentary. It’s a long book, and some of the subject matter (dealing as it does with “perverse modernism” in art) is not for the faint of heart, but it’s well worth the read.

Thanks for reading through this newsletter! I hope to see some of you at the concert on October 12, and I hope to have some new music to share with all of you in November!

Peace,
AJ Harbison

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Letters from the Muse Room #41 (September 2023) September 1, 2023
The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Friday of every other month, each issue of Letters from the Muse Room includes news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past two months.

Dear friends,

Welcome to fall! (I know it doesn’t officially start until September 23, but, kids are back in school, PSLs are back at Starbucks, leaves are starting to blow off the trees… c’mon, it’s basically fall.)

I have two announcements in this Letter, one about concert music and one about pop music.

In the concert-music realm, I’ve recently joined Scorefolio, an online service that creates score videos, and I’ve done two so far. The first was a short piano prelude called “To The Nines” (because it’s based around ninth chords). The second one is my flute duet A Long Weight of Silence, a reflection and meditation on the pandemic through the lens of the six stages of grief. If you’re interested, you can watch the score videos on Scorefolio here or on YouTube here.

[A screenshot of score videos on YouTube.]
In the pop-music realm, I wrote last time about how seeing Matchbox 20 in concert had inspired me to do some pop music songwriting again. I’m happy to report that I’ve done just that. I’m planning a five-song EP, and I have four of the five songs written (and have started on the fifth). One of the songs I performed once (MAYBE twice), in California, 10 or more years ago; the other four songs are brand new and never-before-heard. I’m excited to share more with you soon.
[A pencil with some lyrics for “Who I Am Part 2.”]
The first song is called “Who I Am Part 2.”

But in the meantime, I’m very excited to announce something I haven’t been able to announce in years: If you’re in Kansas City in October, YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO COME AND HEAR ME PLAY MY POP MUSIC LIVE, FOR FREE. That’s right, I’ll be performing at PorchFestKC this year.

This is an awesome local festival that takes place in the Valentine/Roanoke midtown area; homeowners volunteer to host musicians on their porches, and people can come to see a particular artist or just stroll down the street and stop at whatever porch sounds like their kind of jam. I did this back in 2016 (wow, that was a long time ago) and it was super fun.
[AJ performing at PorchFestKC in 2016, with his three-year-old daughter next to him.]
A cute blonde came and crashed the party. :)

The festival is Saturday, October 14, and I’ll be performing on a porch near 39th and Broadway at noon. I’ll be debuting the new songs as well as playing others from Songs From My Shelf and maybe a cover or two. I’ll send more information and reminders as we get closer. I would love to see you there!

[The official graphic for PorchFestKC 2023.]
—-

I’ve recently been inspired by a book with a provocative title: Real Artists Don’t Starve, by Jeff Goins.

[The cover of Real Artists Don’t Starve by Jeff Goins.]
As often happens with me, I bought this book a while ago but never got around to reading it until now. And it’s had a lot of really good things to say. Its goal is to expose the “starving artist” archetype as a myth and show creatives how they can instead be “thriving artists” who make money from their art, connect with their audience and have a real impact.

If you’re an artist, a creative of any stripe or even an entrepreneur, I’d highly recommend it. Jeff Goins also has a Substack you can subscribe to where he writes about writing, life, creativity and the lessons he’s learned from them all.

Thanks for reading. If you’ve made it this far, I want to let you know that I really appreciate it, and I truly hope that these newsletters bring a little spark of joy and inspiration to you. Until next time, I hope you find some small (or some big) ways to thrive.

Peace,
AJ Harbison

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Letters from the Muse Room #40 (July 2023) July 21, 2023
The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Friday of every other month (though it’s late this month!), each issue of Letters from the Muse Room includes news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past two months.

Dear friends,

I hope you are all enjoying your summer! It’s hard to believe July is almost over.

Speaking of which, this Letter is late — this isn’t the first Friday of the month. That’s because we took a family road trip to Chicago the first week of July; read more (and see some pictures of really tall buildings) below.

[The Harbison family in Chicago with skyscrapers in the background.]
I don’t have much music news to share this time; with the vacation and being between projects at the moment, I’ve mostly been doing some composition study and some melody and harmony exercises (as I mentioned in my radio interview on Classical KC). But I do have something to share with you!

I wrote last year about the Olympus Choirs Elements sound library, and how I wanted to share a before-and-after comparison of how it sounded for my piece Seal Lullaby. But I had deleted the before version in my excitement about the after. Well, a little while ago I redid another of my choral compositions, Adventus, with the Olympus library, and I did save the before version of that. So you can hear some before-and-after comparisons at this link!

[The opening system of the Adventus score.]
‑‑‑‑

I was certainly inspired by our trip to Chicago. There’s something about having to crane your neck all the way back to see up to the top of something that inspires a sense of grandeur and even awe.

[Looking up the steep side of a skyscraper in Chicago.]
We took the architecture boat tour and it was filled with beautiful buildings and fascinating history. Everything from older, ornate buildings:

[An older, ornate skyscraper in Chicago.]
to futuristic buildings (the way the future was envisioned in the 1960s):

[The Marina City Towers in Chicago.]
to a building designed to look like a bottle of champagne, built at the height of Prohibition:

[The Carbide and Carbon Building in Chicago.]
to the world’s tallest building designed by a woman architect:

[The St. Regis in Chicago.]
We also went to the Skydeck at Willis Tower, and spent two minutes in a glass box sticking out from the side of the building 1,353 feet above the ground.

[The Harbison family seemingly suspended in midair.]
On the way back we stopped at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois, where we took in the beauty of natural creation after a week of the beauty of human creation.

[Wildcat Canyon in Starved Rock State Park.]
This canyon is 125 feet deep, and it was very quiet at the bottom. It was a magical spot.

These two places didn’t inspire anything directly, though they certainly “filled the well.” My other inspiration did, however.

[Matchbox Twenty performing at the Starlight Theater.]
Two weeks before our trip, I saw Matchbox Twenty perform live at Starlight Theater in Kansas City.

[Rob Thomas on a video board at the concert looking half crazed.]
I’ve loved Matchbox Twenty for more than 20 years now, but it was my first time getting to see them live. It was a fantastic show and I had so much fun.

But it also inspired me to do some pop music songwriting and recording again. If you’re interested in my pop music and you want to hear some new stuff — stay tuned.

[Matchbox Twenty performing.]
I hope you find inspiration in creations this summer — human, natural, musical, and otherwise. I’ll see you in September!

Peace,
AJ Harbison

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Letters from the Muse Room #39 (May 2023) May 5, 2023
The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Friday of every other month, each issue of Letters from the Muse Room includes news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past two months.

Dear friends,

I have one word that characterizes my Letter this month: gratitude.

It’s been a thrill and a privilege and I am fantastically grateful to have had two fantastic performances in the past two months.
[Program page from the Symphony’s Wild Adventure concert.] Look Ma, I’m in the program!

Performance No. 1: The Kansas City Symphony performed Chameleons on their March 12 Family Series concert in partnership with the Kansas City Zoo.

Ever since deciding I wanted to be a composer, I’ve dreamed of having an orchestra perform a piece that I wrote, and thanks to the KC Symphony I realized that dream.

I got to introduce the piece at the concert and the orchestra of course performed wonderfully. Very grateful!
[Me introducing Chameleons in Helzberg Hall!]
Performance No. 2: This was a different performance than I was expecting. newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble was slated to perform the live, in-person, two-flute premiere of A Long Weight of Silence in their concerts last weekend, but their flutist got sick at the last minute.
[Sascha Groschang performing Shapeshifter!]
Graciously, Sascha, newEar’s cellist, stepped in to play the world premiere of Shapeshifter, the piece I wrote for her that we were hoping to premiere sometime later this year.

I’m very grateful to newEar for programming my music in the first place, and very grateful to Sascha for learning a hard piece a month or two ago and performing it at these concerts with just a few days’ notice. She did a terrific job and it was wonderful to hear the piece come to life. And the rest of the music was great too!
[Sascha and me after the Sunday afternoon concert.] [Composers and performers at the newEar concert.] All the composers and performers from the newEar concert!

—-

These two performances were certainly inspiring to me this month, and I hope if you were able to attend one that the music was inspiring to you too.

I do have one other piece of inspiration for you as well. I recently discovered the music of Tommy Emmanuel, an Australian guitar virtuoso. I’ve really enjoyed his music because it’s virtuosic without being showy, and most of his songs are genuinely, sincerely, infectiously happy.

My favorite song of his is “Halfway Home.” The opening lick never fails to get stuck in my mind, in the best way, and I end up whistling it for the rest of the day. The album version of the song is on YouTube too but here’s a live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkKcd51QCiE&ab_channel=TommyEmmanuel.
[Tommy Emmanuel performing his song “Halfway Home.”]
I hope you find joy and inspiration in music this month. Till next time!

Peace,
AJ Harbison

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Letters from the Muse Room #38 (March 2023) March 3, 2023
The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Friday of every other month, each issue of Letters from the Muse Room includes news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past two months.

Dear friends,

I have a short and sweet Letter for you this month. My big news is I have two exciting performances of my music coming up!

Performance No. 1: The Kansas City Symphony is helping me realize a dream I’ve had since I was a kid: having a piece I composed performed by a full orchestra!!

I wrote about this piece a year ago, and now it is finally being launched out into the world. It’s called Chameleons and it’s being performed on the Symphony’s Family concert on Sunday, March 12 at 2:00 p.m. in Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. I’ll be talking about the piece a bit at the concert and it’ll be a lot of fun (the whole show is about animals and is being presented in partnership with the Kansas City Zoo). Here’s the ticket link: https://tickets.kcsymphony.org/wildadventure. I would love to see you there!

Performance No. 2: newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble is going to be presenting the world premiere live performance of my flute duet A Long Weight of Silence!

I composed it for Kansas City Symphony Principal Flute Michael Gordon, and he created an amazing video that was the world premiere of the “one flute in isolation” version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSgIUjob6sE&ab_channel=MichaelGordon

newEar will be performing the world premiere of the “two flutes together” version in their concerts at the end of April. Two performances to choose from! Saturday, April 29 at 8:00 p.m. or Sunday, April 30 at 4:00 p.m. at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church. I’ll be at both performances and I would love to see you there too! Here is the ticket link (you can choose your preferred date and time on this page): https://newear.ticketbud.com.

—-

Two musical videos were inspiring to me over the past two months. I wrote last time about the cello piece I’m working on, and in the research process for that piece I came across two really unique string performers.

The first video featured a double bassist, Florentin Ginot, demonstrating how to play harmonics* pizzicato** on the bass. And using nonstandard tunings for his bass strings he gets some really cool sounds. Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2RHu3buSh4&ab_channel=EnsembleMusikfabrik.

* ethereal-sounding notes you can create using physics and math on a string
** plucking the strings instead of using a bow

(Unfortunately I found this doesn’t really work on the cello — it doesn’t have the same resonance as the bass and this technique sounds too clunky — so I won’t be using it in my piece. But if I ever write a solo double bass piece this is definitely going to be a feature.)

I discovered the second video while researching double- and triple-stops — playing two or three strings at a time instead of just one. And I found that there’s an incredible cellist named Frances-Marie Uitti who plays with not one bow but two — one above the strings (as usual) and one below the strings — so that she can actually bow all four strings at the same time. And if you thought the double bass harmonics were cool, just wait till you hear what this sounds like: https://vimeo.com/38649952%C2%A0 (she picks up the second bow around the 7:00 mark).

I have to say one more time that I would love to see you at one or both of the performances coming up if you’re in the Kansas City area. I’m really stoked about both of them. I hope to see you there!

Peace,
AJ Harbison

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