Stanley Harper '' was an American virtuoso classical harmonica artist, arranger, and composer. He died June 29, 2016, in a home for the elderly in New Jersey. He raised the popularity of classical harmonica by influencing composers to write for the instrument and by transcribing serious classical works, himself. Through his virtuosity, he widened the recognition of classical harmonica in solo, chamber, and major orchestral settings.
Career history
Harper began his professional harmonica career in 1935, at age 14. In 1941, he went professionally for a short while by the name Ted Stanley. He went on to perform and record nationally on radio, television, record, theaters, and film until 2015. In the mid to late 1930s, Harper performed with The Harmonica Scamps and Three Harpers, both based in New York City. He apparently only began using the name Stan Harper after World War II. Over the years, he has performed with other renown harmonica players and a range of entertainers and artists, including Eddie Shu, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, Hal David, Werner Klemperer, Sam Wanamaker, and Leon Kirchner. Up until the death of Charley Leighton, Harper was a regular member of a harmonica jam session held every Tuesday at 3 PM at Charley Leighton's apartment in New York City. In addition to Leighton, regulars included Charles Spranklin, William Galison, Randy Weinstein, Stanley Silverstone, Gregoire Maret, Phil Caltabelotta, and Rob Paparozzi.
Television – Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, solo appearance, May 7, 1951
Television – Today, hosted by Hugh Downs, solo appearance, November 24, 1963
Convention for World Records, New York City, 1977 – Following a performance by Morris Samskin performing on a 2-inch violin, the world's smallest, Harper performed on a 1-inch harmonica, also the world's smallest. The two performances were chronicled as world records by Ripley's Believe It or Not
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., solo appearance, 1991, demonstrating his skills using 5 to 6 different sized harmonicas
Filmography
...One_Third_of_a_Nation..., 1939, harmonica player
"Pocket Full of Soul: The Harmonica Documentary" 2013, Omni-Harmonic, LLC
"If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast"
Harper's surname as a hamonica namesake
Hering Harmonicas, hand maker of diatonic and chromatic harmonicas, located in Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil, started producing in 2009 a popular model bearing Harper's name: The Stan Harper Chromatic 56, a three-octave, 14-hole instrument with 56 brass reeds sealed by a pearwood body bolted to a hardwood comb with chrome-plated cover plates, mouthpiece and slide assembly.
The Guinness Book of World Records, 1978 edition, 1979 edition, and the 1982 edition -and possibly also the years in between, show a photograph of Stan Harper playing the largest harmonic, the Hohner 48 Chord Harmonica, which, when separated, measures 4 feet long. it has 384 separate holes and can play in a total of 48 major, minor and diminished chords.
Family
Stanley Theodore Wisser grew up in a Jewish home and was the youngest of six born to a Ukrainian-born American father, Abraham Wisser , and Moldovan-born American mother, Rose — his father was born in Nizhyn, Ukraine, and his mother in Briceni, Moldova. His mother came from a family of cantors. Harper had been a widower of Era Maria Tognoli, a 1940s opera soprano who, in 1959, founded the Metro Lyric Opera Company in Allenhurst, New Jersey, and for 52 years, directed it. Harper and Tongoli were married March 17, 1964, in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
General references
Publicity poster: Hohner National Harmonica Contest,University of Mississippi Library, Digital Collections, Blues Photograph Collection ;
