viola & viola d’amore player…researcher & collaborator

American viola and viola d’amore player Clifton Harrison has performed as a chamber musician, recitalist, and in orchestras throughout Europe, the United States, Central America, and Asia. He is the viola player in the acclaimed Kreutzer Quartet with whom he has recorded extensively. As a member of the quartet, Clifton has been artist-in-residence at Oxford University, Goldsmiths, Southampton, and Bath Spa University and continues a close association with the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Northern College of Music.

Parallel to his quartet duties, Clifton regularly gives masterclasses, workshops, and lectures worldwide on viola performance, chamber music, artistic and professional development, and topics surrounding his main research areas. He has a strong passion for educating the next generation. Most recently, he has given lectures and masterclasses at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Vanderbilt University (USA), Royal Academy of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He is also a viola tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and Nicola Benedetti’s Benedetti Foundation.

Clifton is frequently invited on a number of judging panels, most recently for PRS Foundation, Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and Ivors Composer Awards. An avid freelance viola player, he has worked as guest principal violist with most of the UK’s major orchestras and period performance ensembles. He is also in demand as a guest principal in orchestras and ensembles across Europe, spanning repertoire from the 16th century to the 21st century. Clifton records extensively for film, television and video games and can be heard on hundreds of international soundtracks. He has toured worldwide with countless classical ensembles as well as performed with popular artists as wide-ranging as Eric Clapton, Björk, Laura Mvula, the James Taylor Quartet, Michael Kiwanuka, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, Kano, Gregory Porter, Thom Yorke, Dermot Kennedy, Jonny Greenwood, and Ellie Goulding. Clifton has been heard in festivals throughout the world, from the muddy fields of Glastonbury to the EFG London Jazz Festival, Ghent Festival, Lincoln Center Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, and London’s BBC Proms.

As a researcher, Clifton focuses on three distinct areas: Seventeenth and eighteenth century viola d’amore music from the Germanic region, Black, Asian and ethnically diverse classical and contemporary composers/sound artists, and South American baroque composers of colour.

Clifton is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, America'‘s oldest and most prestigious boarding school for the arts. This was followed by studies at the Juilliard School (violin/viola) and the Royal Academy of Music (modern viola/baroque viola).

In 2019, the Governing Body and the Honours Committee of the Royal Academy of Music elected Clifton Harrison Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM). This honour is awarded to a select number of former students who have made a significant contribution to the music profession.

Recent releases are on the Hyperion, Universal Music, Sony, NAXOS, Warner Music, Navona Records, NMC Records, Métier, and Signum Classics labels. 

Find out more about my viola d’amore and its maker here.

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Writing & Projects

One Camera, One Take Series

March 2020- 2021

One Camera, One Take is a series that I created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we continue to self-isolate, music still finds a way to reach us all. Like many of my music colleagues, my heart is missing performing and connecting with people through music. As my concerts have all been cancelled, I find solace in presenting these video performances and I hope that they reach anyone who is looking for a bit of music while our concert halls are silenced.

Identity & Aesthetic

February 2019

Five Caribbean-British women communicate their lives, stories, and identities through composition…

A five-part series for Sound and Music and the British Music Collection that look at the relationship between Identity and Aesthetic. This project explores the lives, creative minds, and selected works of five British-Caribbean composers.  They are Eleanor Alberga, Hannah Catherine Jones (aka Foxy Moron), Hannah Kendall, Prof. Shirley J. Thompson OBE, and Errollyn Wallen MBE. Spanning the breadth of today’s active living composers, they range from baby boomers to millennials, each having a distinctive understanding of their culture and its impact on their work.  

Click here or the button below to watch the interviews on the British Music Collection website.

Watch the series on YouTube

Strings Magazine

July/August 2018

Violist Clifton Harrison on the Timeless Qualities of Ives’ String Quartet No. 2

Excerpt -
”Ives’ Second Quartet is a work of conversation, discussion, argument, and reconciliation. Ives himself described it as such. I see it as an abstract expression of human interaction using language that is quintessentially modern. Each of the three movements is different in style and feel, yet they are connected by similar grammar and expression. This work is filled with character, musical quotes, jokes, and commentary that transcend time and era. “

Graupner Project…

Winter/Spring 2021 | Postponed due to COVID-19 Pandemic - More info soon.

Viola d’amore and composer Christoph Graupner (1683-1760). The viola d’amore that I use plays a very important role in my research. It was made for me by Jonathan Hill.

More information coming soon…

Lectures

Sourcing Hard to Find Scores and Engaging in Imaginative Programming Practices

A lecture that looks at practical tools and strategies for sourcing hard to find scores and research materials. This feeds directly into the idea of imaginative programming and what impact that can have to all of us as musicians and audience members.

Diversifying Artistic Output and Repertoire

How can we as artists become better performers and champions of repertoire by composers that vividly represent the world in which we live? A large part of history is missing. Historically underrepresented composers make up that missing piece of the classical music puzzle. Am I contributing or am I inhibiting progress? How does this fit within my own artistic practice? This lecture looks at artists roles and responsibilities as they relate to race, culture, history, and the archaic idea of the ‘cannon’ in the 21st century.

Viola d’Amore and the Germans: Graupner, Telemann, & Bach

Traditions and style of eighteenth-century viola d’amore repertoire from the Germanic region of northern Europe.