ABOUT
“Harville has made it grandly apparent why he was selected to be the Director for the Civic Symphony.”
Winner of the London Conducting Masterclass Competition and the Agatha C. Church Conducting Award, Grant Harville acts as Music/Artistic Director for the Civic Orchestra of Victoria, Sidney's Via Choralis, the Vancouver Island Chamber Choir, and the Victoria Harmony Choir. Locally he has appeared with the Victoria Symphony, Ballet Victoria, and the Victoria Conservatory of Music.
Previously, Harville held director positions with the Great Falls Symphony, Idaho State-Civic Symphony (where he earned a 20 Under 40 award from the Southeast Idaho Business Journal), and Bozeman Symphony, and was Assistant Director with the Georgia Symphony. His guest conducting appearances include the Okanagan Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Southwest Michigan Symphony, St. Cloud Symphony, Oistrach Symphony, and Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City. He has music directed opera productions for Manitoba Underground Opera, Fraser Lyric Opera, and the Madison Savoyards.
“The Great Falls Symphony opened its new 2017-2018 season under the leadership of new director Grant Harville. What a marvelous, fun program. For the evening, Great Falls’ new maestro earned five stars in the Michelin galaxy. A great start.”
– Great Falls Tribune (letter to the editor)
Harville has collaborated with numerous artists of international stature, including Bela Fleck, Martina Filjak, Orion Weiss, Dominic Cheli, Chee-Yun, William Hagen, Stephanie Chase, Inbal Segev, Jiji, Patrick Sheridan, as well as the groups Pink Martini and Time for Three. He conducted the first full-length orchestral program in the United States with French-Canadian folk group Le Vent du Nord, and orchestrated and premiered a symphonic collaboration with Native American hip-hop artist Supaman.
A composer himself, Harville has dedicated himself to presenting contemporary works in meaningful ways. In 2022, he established the Second Performance Project, a program designed to insure that works which have been premiered have opportunities to receive further performances. In the last two seasons the program has received over 160 submissions. He has spotlighted video game music with his arrangements of scores from Tetris, Celeste, and Undertale, and has brought the music of Canadian-born composer Nathaniel Dett to orchestral audiences with his continuing series of orchestrations of Dett’s piano works.
Harville’s diverse performance background includes experience as a tubist, vocalist, and violist. He has a number of tuba competition victories to his credit, including First Prize in the Leonard Falcone International Solo Tuba competition and winner of the University of Michigan Concerto Competition, performing a concerto of his own composition.Others of his works have been performed by numerous ensembles and soloists throughout the US and have been heard on NPR affiliates in Wisconsin and Montana. His Sonata for tuba and piano was a finalist for the Harvey G. Phillips Award for Excellence in Composition, and he was awarded a grant to conduct his "Steampunk" Partita at the National Association of Music Educators Northwest Division Conference.
“Harville has made it grandly apparent why he was selected to be the Director for the Civic Symphony.”
– Idaho State Journal
“Grant Harville took charge for Ravel’s “Introduction and Allegro” … the small group had no technical problems, and the music shimmered exquisitely, thoroughly bewitching.”
– ArtsCriticATL.com
“Conductor Grant Harville has pulled together an orchestra that starts out the run in more polished shape than I can recall from past years.”
– Isthmus
“Harville is to be congratulated for the selections he chooses for these concerts. They have depth and breadth plus appeal to an audience ranging from serious musical aficionados to those who are there purely for enjoyment.”
– Idaho State Journal
Harville pursued his music studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Michigan. His principal teachers and mentors include James Smith, Markand Thakar, Victor Yampolsky, Kenneth Kiesler, Michael Haithcock, David Becker, John Stevens, and Fritz Kaenzig.
“My soul was indelibly changed by the visceral artistry of Grant Harville’s composition “West Bench” … the stark soundscapes of rhythms and textures accurately portrayed what I feel about this area, and fascinatingly so. There was never a dull moment, each movement seamlessly contrasted with the next.”
– Idaho State Journal (letter to the editor)
“All who attended your NKA course came away with a much better understanding of symphonic compositions, how they work, and how to appreciate them. We would be happy to have you back again and again and again.”
– Letter, New Knowledge Adventures administrator and student