Lucas Harris

Lucas Harris leads a busy freelancer’s life as a lutenist, conductor, continuo player, teacher, lecturer, coach, researcher, and audio/video editor.  After graduating summa cum laude from Pomona College, Lucas studied early music at the Civica scuola di musica di Milano (as a scholar of the Marco Fodella Foundation) and at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen.  Since 2004 Harris is based in Toronto where he serves as the regular lutenist for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.  He is a founding member of the Vesuvius Ensemble (dedicated to Southern Italian folk music) as well as the Lute Legends Ensemble (a multi-ethnic trio of lute, pipa, and oud).  Lucas serves as a continuo player with many ensembles in Canada and the USA, and has worked in recent years with the Helicon Foundation, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Atalante, and Les Délices.

Lucas teaches at the Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Baroque Institutes, Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, and the Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School, and also served as vocal coach & accompanist at Vancouver Early Music’s Baroque Vocal Program.  In 2014 Lucas completed graduate studies in choral conducting at the University of Toronto, the degree having been funded by a prestigious SSHRC research grant not often awarded to performers.  Upon graduating, Lucas was chosen as the Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir for which he has created and conducted over twenty themed concert programs.  He has also directed projects for the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Ohio State University Opera Program, Les voix baroques, and the Toronto Consort.

During the pandemic, Lucas has been busy with a range of activities including teaching at online academies for continuo players and singers, editing virtual choir videos, and reconstructing a collection of motets by the Italian nun composer Chiara Margarita Cozzolani as well as producing videos of their modern premieres.