Introduction

Biography

John was the hus­band of com­pos­er and writ­er Su­sie Fran­ces Har­ris­on, who used the pseu­do­nym Se­ra­nus.

Harrison stu­died pi­ano, or­gan and voice un­der George Rise­ley, or­gan­ist of Bris­tol Ca­thed­ral. He later stu­died or­gan in Lon­don, and sing­ing in Na­ples, It­aly.

After emi­grat­ing to Ca­na­da in 1874, he played the or­gan at St. George’s Ang­li­can Church in Mont­real.

In 1879, he moved to Ot­ta­wa and be­came or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter of Christ Church Ca­thed­ral, di­rect­ed mu­sic at the La­dies’ Col­lege, and re­vived the de­funct Ot­ta­wa Phil­har­mo­nic So­ci­ety.

In 1886, he be­came or­gan­ist at the Jar­vis Street Bap­tist Church in To­ron­to, and con­duct­ed a 40-mem­ber boys and men’s choir at St. Si­mon-the-Apos­tle (1888–1916), the Whit­by Chor­al So­ci­ety, and the Mu­sic­al Un­ion of To­ron­to.

He served as pre­si­dent of the Ca­na­di­an So­ci­ety of Mu­si­cians (1893), and was an ex­am­in­er for the To­ron­to Col­lege of Mu­sic and the Uni­ver­si­ty of To­ron­to.