Another, equally important, illustration of the above commitment is found in the numerous festivals to which the composer contributed his prodigious energies, the seed for these possibly having been planted by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge festivals of chamber music, which had featured important premieres of his works over the years. His first important experience in this area appears to have been with the Festival of American Music, which he helped organize during his tenure at the Westminster Choir School. Later there were the Conference on the Fine Arts (which had been established at The Colorado College a few years prior to his and Johana's arrival there); the Cache Valley Festival in Utah; the Cumberland Forest Festival in Sewanee, Tennessee; and, most ambitious of all, the 1952 Pittsburgh International Contemporary Music Festival, one of the largest and most impressive events of its kind in this country's history, involving composers from Europe, South America, Mexico, and Russia-most of whom came to supervise performances of their works-a series of commissioned choral compositions, and a complete set of (noncommercial) festival recordings.
With the exception of the Pittsburgh event, most of these activities took place during the summer and involved chamber ensembles and small orchestras, with a heavy orientation toward strings. For them, the Harrises drew upon their wide acquaintances in the music world, bringing in noted soloists and first-chair players of major orchestras to perform and give master classes.
The summation of all this, and possibly Harris's most enduring accomplishment aside from his creative work, was the International String Congress, the idea for which grew out of his concern over what he perceived as a nationwide shortage of young string players. With the cooperation of the American Federation of Musicians and financial support from donors, the first sessions were held at Greenleaf Lake, OK (1959) and San German, PR (1960). Although his involvement as administrator ceased after these first two years, the composer was invited to participate in subsequent sessions, sometimes as chairman of the judges, well into the 1970s.
