Organist Randall Harlow plays a recital of contemporary music from the USA composed in the last 20 years, co-sponsored by the Harvard Music Department.

About Randall Harlow

As a performer-scholar Randall Harlow's interests range from empirical performance research to the Inuit organ tradition, organ transcription repertoire and the 21st-century avant-garde. His presentations at conferences at Harvard and Cornell Universities, the Westfield Center, Orgelpark in Amsterdam, the AGO National Convention, the International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), Göteborg International Organ Academy in Sweden (GOArt), and the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI) Festival span topics in empirical performance research and Hyperorgan design. His recent article in the journal Keyboard Perspectives established a new field called Keyboard Psychohaptics.  Past research projects include the first comprehensive documentation and study of the pipe organ culture of Greenland. In 2008 the Eastman School of Music awarded him the prestigious Presser Music Award for "excellence and outstanding promise for a distinguished career in the field of music."  He is currently working on a monograph exploring an ecological theory of music performance. 

As a performer, Randall Harlow has eschewed the competition circuit, choosing instead to focus on exploring the outer reaches of the organ repertoire.  He maintains an intense focus on contemporary music and currently serves on the National Committee for New Music Competitions and Commissions of the American Guild of Organists. His numerous World and North American premieres include compositions by Stephen Ingham, John Anthony Lennon, Ron Nagorcka, Sven-David Sandström, Kaikhosru Sorabji, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others. Also an avid performer with orchestra, he has performed concertos by Lou Harrison, Chen Yi and the North American premieres of organ concertos by Petr Eben, Tilo Medek, and Giles Swayne.  Dr. Harlow is also a leading advocate for electroacoustic composition for the organ and has premiered works for organ with live-electronics by Steve Everett, René Uijlenhoet, and Steven Rice.

Randall Harlow holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music in addition to graduate and undergraduate degrees from Indiana and Emory Universities. His principal teachers have included Hans Davidsson, Timothy Albrecht, Christopher Young, and William Porter in improvisation. Additional studies include summer organ academies in Canada, Sweden, and England, while international performances have taken him to England, Russia, and Greenland.  He recently served for a year on faculty at Cornell University and is currently Assistant Professor of Organ and Music Theory at the University of Northern Iowa.  Randall Harlow is represented by Crimson Concert Artists and can be heard on American Public Media's nationally syndicated radio show, Pipedreams.