Lecturer
(716) 878-6401
Campus Address: Rockwell Hall 203
HARRISCJ@BUFFALOSTATE.EDU
Born and raised in Niagara Falls, NY, Carole Harris graduated from Lasalle Senior High School in Niagara Falls. She received a BA in French, cum laude, with minors in Spanish and English from SUNY at Buffalo (1968) and returned to UB in 1988 to begin working towards a degree in music. She earned a BA in Music, magna cum laude (focus on organ and music theory, 1991), and then enrolled in the PhD program in Music Theory immediately thereafter. A degree of PhD in Music Theory and Historical Musicology was conferred in 2002. Her dissertation was “The French Connection: The Neoclassical Influence of Stravinsky, through Boulanger, on the Music of Copland, Talma and Piston.” Her primary adviser was Dr. Martha Hyde.
As a practicing musician, Dr. Harris is a pianist and organist, with a long history of teaching piano privately and employment as a church organist and choir director at many churches throughout Niagara and Erie counties. Currently, she is organist at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Youngstown, NY.
She began her college teaching career in 1997 at Niagara County Community College, where her classes included music theory, music history, piano classes and a Women in Music course. Following that, she taught music theory and aural skills at Canisius College from 2008 to 2015, and will teach an online Music and Film course in the spring semester of 2017.
Dr. Harris’s work at Buffalo State began in fall 2012 where she teaches music major theory courses and has taught theory fundamentals and piano classes. In addition, she teaches online graduate music theory and music history courses.
She is also active in the wider music community as a member of the Buffalo Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO); Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI), the Women’s Music Fraternity, Buffalo Alumnae Chapter; and the biennial Western New York Women in the Arts Festival, which she organizes and publicizes.
Other past employment includes dance instructor; journalist (Niagara Gazette), and writer (WKBW-TV).
Memberships include Phi Beta Kappa (UB Chapter); Pi Kappa Lambda (National Music Honor Society, UB Chapter); AGO and SAI (mentioned above); Humane Society of the United States; ASPCA; and a number of other animal- and music-related organizations.
