![]() His real love, however, was the trombone. “I’ve always wanted to sing in the worst way-and I have,” jokes the 79-year-old Syracuse native. The eldest of five kids, Harris sought refuge in music at an early age, often playing piano and singing. Bill was such an imposing presence, but also a positive role model, like a father figure.” “That’s where ‘The Bear’ reference comes from. “Bill and the rest of the brass section were heroic figures to us, larger than life,” explains former student Joe Catania ’82. Many agree that the classic lineup of Harris, Doug Courtright and Fred Boyd during the SSO’s salad days made for some exceptional slide work. “It’s one of my most treasured musical moments.” “Bill’s performance of the Mahler left me awestruck,” says retired music educator Bill Palange, drawing comparisons to Denis Wick’s definitive recording with the London Symphony Orchestra. Other standouts include premiering Dexter Morrill’s Trombone Concerto and soloing in Ravel’s Bolero and Mahler’s Third Symphony. Reflecting on his 49 years with the SSO, Harris says that Fiedler giving him a thumbs up after a particular jazz solo remains a highlight. We found out later that the sponge was soaked with gin,” Harris laughs. “Fiedler would press his finger on the sponge, lick it and then turn the page of his score. Harris recalls how the conductor kept a sponge damper pad on his music stand. Proof of Fiedler’s epicurean tendencies could be found in the mundane. He was really into firetrucks and food,” Harris says. “Offstage, Fiedler wanted to talk about everything but music. It was the spring of 1972, and the 77-year-old “Pops Potentate” was squeezing in a 12-day run with the SSO, amid trips to New York City and Chicago. Like the one about Arthur Fiedler, the legendary Boston Pops conductor. A master.Īlmost any conversation with “The Bear” (as Harris’ students affectionately call him) yields a torrent of jabs and one-liners, interspersed with the occasional warm-and-fuzzy. ![]() Never mind that Harris is a storyteller of the highest degree, a humorist with a self-described streak of “Irish diplomacy.” To paraphrase Ralphie in A Christmas Story, Harris works in irony the way other artists might work in oils or clay. ![]() His buttery-warm personality and humble demeanor have since endeared him to nearly everyone-from students at Syracuse University and Onondaga Community College (OCC), where he has taught trombone and low brass for more than 50 years to his colleagues in the now-defunct SSO, from which he retired in 2009 as a charter member to his neighbors in Fayetteville, where he and his college bride, Karen ’65, are grandparents.
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