Michael Harley

bassoon, voice, keyboards

michaelharley@alarmwillsound.com

I grew up in Goshen, Indiana, a land of cornfields and maple trees. I also grew up Mennonite, which, as far as music goes, meant: a capella, four-part hymn singing (you can't beat it!) My parents forced me to take piano lessons for a time; they said some day I'd thank them. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Anyway, at some point in late junior high, my band director looked at all four of us oboe players and asked if one of us would like to play this unusual instrument, the bassoon. I thought it looked pretty cool and definitely much more masculine - I was the lone male oboist, after all - so I decided to give it a try, spent a week in the practice room with a fingering chart and joined the band, I believe, on a piece called "Greasy Kid's Stuff".

(following school at Goshen College and Western Michigan U. and the Cincinnati Conservatory and Eastman, from which it sometimes appears I may never escape...)

(following some fun times like playing music in Lucca, Italy in the summers, and traveling in the Dominican Republic and Morocco and Europe and South Africa, and meeting my lovely wife Jennifer Parker, a flutist...)

(following jobs at Goshen College, Wright State University, and Ohio University, teaching everything from bassoon and woodwind pedagogy to theory, history, keyboard musicianship, and directing a wind ensemble and collegium musicum)

to the present: Jennifer and I live in Columbia, SC, with our two BEAUTIFUL girls, Ella and Lucia! ...and are both on the faculty at the U. of South Carolina; I teach history and theory classes, coach a little chamber music, and help with a great new music series called Southern Exposure at the University of South Carolina, and Jen is prof. of flute. Spare time (does that exist?) might find me serving as a human jungle gym for the girls, traveling, hiking, reading, or, if at all possible, on and in the water. And, yes, I play in this crazy ensemble called Alarm Will Sound (but I guess you knew that). And we play music that might well be termed "Greasy Grown-Up Stuff," have a great time, and I feel very fortunate to be a part of it all.

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