Harold Boatrite


Harold Boatrite is an American composer.
After early studies with Stanley Hollingsworth, Harold Boatrite was awarded a fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center where he studied composition with Lukas Foss and took part in the orchestration seminars of Aaron Copland. In 1961 he was invited by Rudolf Serkin to be composer-in-residence at the Marlboro Music Festival.
He received an honorary doctorate in 1967 from the Combs College of Music and subsequently was appointed to the faculty of Haverford College, where he taught theory and composition until 1980. During that time he served on the music panel of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
In honor of his fiftieth birthday in 1982, a series of concerts devoted exclusively to his music was presented by the Pennsylvania Alliance for American Music. Among the participants in the series were the , the Thomas Jefferson University Choir and the . Boatrite has written in a wide variety of media ranging from solo and chamber pieces to large-scale choral and orchestral works. His music has been heard throughout the United States and in Europe, most notably, at the Prague Autumn International Music Festival.
He has received many commissions including a concerto for piano and orchestra for the , a concerto for harpsichord and strings commissioned by Temple Painter, Fantasia on a Gregorian Tune for string orchestra, harpsichord, celesta and boy choir commissioned by the , and a ballet, "Childermas," for CBS-TV which premiered on national television in 1969.
In 1992 Boatrite was appointed composer-in-residence for the . He served for many years as new music consultant to the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. His chamber music is recorded on the Capstone label and his orchestral scores are housed in
the Edwin A. Fleisher Orchestral Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia.
One of Boatrite's current projects is the completion of a series of Latin motets for unaccompanied chorus.

Selected works

Suite for Harpsichord; Pastorale

Performer: Temple Painter
Suite for Harpsichord; Chaconne

Performer: Temple Painter