Beginnings
Harris was born in Kansas City, Kansas. When he was 7 years of age, his parents enrolled him in piano lessons and he continued his studies until he was 11 years old when he expressed an interest in music composition. It was at this time he composed his first piece of music, a short work for piano called Kleine Klavierstück in C Major, WoO 1. He wrote the piece by hand in the exercise pad his teacher had given him for doing music theory exercises. There are some corrections which were made by his teacher, but the work's theme was his own invention.
When he was 12 he began taking an interest in other instruments: percussion and the clarinet. He enrolled in his school's orchestra and played percussion for a short time then moved to the clarinet. Within 2 weeks of taking up the woodwind instrument his teacher was so impressed, he moved Harris into Advanced Band. Harris stopped playing the clarinet a couple years later.
Read more about this topic: Kevin F. Harris
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