{{Short description|American concert pianist, accompanist, choral conductor and educator}} '''Harrison Potter''' (May 9, 1891, North Adams, Massachusetts – October 3, 1984, Holyoke, Massachusetts) was an American concert pianist, accompanist, choral conductor, and educator.<ref name="obit">{{cite news | first= | last= | title=Harrison Potter, noted musician | date=October 10, 1984 | work=North Adams Transcript}} obituary, 14.</ref>
Potter studied piano with Felix Fox, and, in Paris, Isidor Philipp. Early in his career, Potter taught for a time at Boston's Fox-Buonamici Piano School. He also served as assistant conductor of the 301st Army Regiment Band during World War I.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Expect War Conditions to Eradicate 'Exclusiveness' from Boston's Music this Season | journal = Musical America | date = October 19, 1918 | first = Charles | last = Roepper | volume = 28 | issue = 25}}</ref> He performed widely as a recitalist and accompanist during his career.<ref>Agency History/Biographical Note, “Harrison Potter Papers,” Mount Holyoke College, Archives and Special Collections, South Hadley, MA.</ref>
A ''Boston Globe'' review of a 1926 recital in Boston's Jordan Hall stated, "Mr. Potter’s excellence as a pianist is in his fine command of tonal gradations, his wide variety and subtlety of tonal color. He clearly loves his instrument and brings out its true powers admirably."<ref>{{cite news | first=P. | last=R. | title=Piano Recital by Harrison Potter | date=October 29, 1926 | work=Boston Globe}} 6.</ref>
Potter's recording of Charles Tomlinson Griffes' Piano Sonata is referenced in the 1943 first edition of Edward Maisel's biography of Griffes, though due to its unavailability at the time of the second edition, other recordings were referenced instead.<ref>{{Citation | last = Maisel | first= Edward | title = Charles T. Griffles: The Life of an American Composer | place = New York | publisher = Knopf | year = 1984 | edition = 2nd | pages = xv | isbn = 0-394-54081-6}}</ref>
From 1930 to 1948 Potter served as the Chautauqua Institution's assistant choral director and as choral director from 1948 to 1952. He also served as assistant conductor of the Ontario Society of New York from 1944 to 1948.<ref>Biographical Note, "Harrison Potter Papers," Mount Holyoke College, Archives and Special Collections, South Hadley, MA.</ref><ref name="obit"/> From 1946 to 1957, Potter taught at Mount Holyoke College, the Felix Fox School of Pianoforte Playing in Boston, Massachusetts, the Chautauqua School of Music, and Sarah Lawrence College.<ref name="obit"/>
Potter accompanied many noted vocalists during his career including Metropolitan Opera singers Rose Bampton and Risë Stevens.<ref name="obit"/>
He died in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1984.
==Recordings== * Harrison Potter, piano, "Five Sketches in Sepia," by Ernest Bloch, Friends of Recorded Music, FRM-12 (78 RPM), 1937<ref name="American Music Lover">{{Citation | title = The Friends of Recorded Music (advertisement) | journal = American Music Lover | date = November 1937 }} </ref><ref name="gramophone">{{Citation | title = Friends of Recorded Music | journal = The Gramophone | date = February 1938 | url = http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/February%201938/17/860136 }} </ref> * Harrison Potter, piano, "Piano Sonata," by Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Friends of Recorded Music, FRM-10-11 (78 RPM), 1937<ref name="American Music Lover"/><ref name="gramophone"/>
==Footnotes== <references/>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Harrison}} Category:1891 births Category:1984 deaths Category:American male classical pianists Category:American music educators Category:People from North Adams, Massachusetts Category:Pupils of Isidor Philipp Category:20th-century American classical pianists Category:Classical musicians from Massachusetts Category:Mount Holyoke College faculty Category:20th-century American male pianists
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