Pat Harbison

As part of the 2009 Homecoming celebration, the University of Louisville Alumni Association will honor the 2009 Alumnus of the Year along with this year’s 10 Alumni Fellows. The Alumni Fellows awards are presented annually to graduates who have proven themselves to be exemplary ambassadors for their UofL schools or colleges through their contributions to their professional fields and their communities. Alumni Fellows are nominated by their respective UofL schools or colleges, and final selection is made by the Alumni Association.

Bloomington, Indiana resident and Indiana University faculty member Pat Harbison will be honored as the 2009 UofL School of Music Alumni Fellow. Harbison is professor of jazz studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he has served since 1997. He previously served on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music from 1984-1997.

He has been on the faculty of Jamey Aebersold’s Summer Jazz Workshops since 1976 and has presented hundreds of jazz clinics and workshops around the world. Harbison has released four CDs as leader or co-leader and has appeared as jazz soloist on numerous recordings. Harbison is presently active in 21st Century Trumpet, a performing and educational collaboration with fellow UofL alumna trumpeter Alex Yates. He is a well-known jazz clinician and his books are used by trumpeters around the world. Harbison has served on the ITG Board of Directors and as chair of the ITG Jazz Committee.

Harbison received his bachelor’s in music education from UofL in 1977 and his master’s in jazz studies from Indiana University in 1987. At the University of Louisville, Harbison studied trumpet with Leon Rapier, who was principal trumpet with the Louisville Orchestra for many years. Other Rapier students among the nineteen people previously been honored as UofL Alumni Fellows include Stacy Blair, Clifford Blackburn, Bernard Sanchez, Steven Plank, and Michael Tunnell.

As 2009 Alumni Fellow, Harbison will be involved in several special events at the UofL School of Music during homecoming week, including a lecture/performance for the school of music, a trumpet master class, a lecture-demonstration for the jazz program, and public jazz performances at Louisville’s two premiere jazz venues, Jazzy Blu (October 9) and the historic Seelbach Hotel (October 10).