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On Nov. 8, the Harker Speaker Series will host “An Evening With David Amram,” one of America’s most treasured composers and conductors. A professional musician for nearly 70 years – starting out in 1951 as a French hornist in Washington, D.C.’s National Symphony Orchestra – Amram has performed with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus, and composed the scores for the classic American films “Splendor in the Grass” and “Manchurian Candidate.”
Amram’s career throughout the 20th century led him to collaborations with influential figures including beat writer Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Betty Carter, Tito Puente, Hunter S. Thompson and Leonard Bernstein, who in 1966 appointed Amram the New York Philharmonic’s first composer in residence. Several of Amram’s compositions – including 2007’s “This Land, Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie” and 2002’s “Giants of the Night” – have become some of the mostly widely performed pieces in contemporary music.
“An Evening With David Amram” will include an interview with Amram conducted by upper school history teacher Charles Shuttleworth, a sit-in performance with Harker instrumental groups and an audience Q&A session. Amram’s famous wit, talent for storytelling and perspectives on the current music industry are sure to make this an event not to be missed!
Admission for “An Evening With David Amram” is free, but tickets are required for entry and can be obtained through the Harker Speaker Series website at https://www.harker.org/about/events/harker-speaker-series.