A Harvard Festival music by Leroy Anderson:   official website, complete reference, audio file

Composition: "A Harvard Festival"
Composer: Leroy Anderson
Copyright: © 1969 Woodbury Music Company LLC
Completed: January 6, 1969
Instrumentation: Orchestra
First Performed: April 1, 1969, James Yannatos, conductor, Harvard Radcliffe orchestra, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY.
First Recording: September 3, 2007, BBC Concert Orcestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor, Watford, U.K.
Length: 6:13

Listen: Harvard Festival (1969)

About the music:

"A Harvard Festival" is Leroy Anderson's 1969 revision of his 1936 composition originally called "A Harvard Fantasy".  The composition consists of four movements, each depicting an aspect of Harvard student life.  The original "A Harvard Fantasy" was the first piece that Leroy Anderson conducted with the Boston Pops Orchestra.  Boston Pops music director and conductor Arthur Fiedler was so impressed with Anderson's orchestration that he encouraged Anderson to write more original music for the Boston Pops Orchestra.  This launched Anderson's career initially as an arranger for the Boston Pops and eventually as a composer.

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