Harris did not travel widely outside the United States: following his late20s period of study in France, the only significant journeys were trips to Russia, the first in 1958, in company with Roger Sessions, Peter Mennin, and Ulysses Kay, under the auspices of the American Specialists Branch of the International Educational Exchange Service of the State Department (as part of the Cultural Exchange Agreement), the second in 1974 to attend the International Convention of Composers in Moscow (he evidently made a third trip later in the 1970s, but neither I nor the Harris family have turned up any documentation of this), and two 1972 trips (the second accompanied by Johana) to Colombia under the sponsorship of the Instituto Colombiana de Cultura (Colcultura). On the 1958 Russian trip, he became the first American to conduct his own music in the Soviet Union when he led the All-State Radio Orchestra in his Symphony No. 5.
The composer was an enormously vital and vigorous man, having survived without serious incapacitation not only the spinal injury sustained in France but also a potentially crippling automobile accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 10/55 and a nearly fatal bronchial viral attack in Iate63. However, during the 1970s, his health, particularly his memory, began to show a noticeable decline, and he gradually withdrew from active professional life. Still, even after completing his last work in Iate76 (Rejoice and Sing), he continued planning composition projects, among them symphonies that never went beyond the preliminary draft stage, if they got that far. Serving as at least partial compensation for unrealized creative work during this period was the fact that, having witnessed a considerable and prolonged wane in stature and popularity during the 1950s and 60s, the composer at last began to experience a renewed interest in his work during the late70s. Contributing to this were the establishment in 1973 of the Roy Harris Collection (formerly the Roy Harris Archive) at California State University, Los Angeles and the formation in 1979 of its support group, the Roy Harris Society, an organization that, although short-lived, nonetheless managed to co-sponsor several recordings on the then new Varese Sarabande label and publications by Belwin Mills.
