Harrison Slater
Musicologist, pedagogue, pianist, impresario, writer, author, educator
Harrison Gradwell Slater Wignall was an American writer, pianist, and educator. Born Harry James Wignall in New Bedford, Mass., he lived in New Bedford while his father, a US Army officer, was a prisoner of war for three years, held by the Communist Chinese in North Korea. In his youth Harry lived for four years in Mannheim and Frankfurt, Germany while his father was stationed with the US Army Northern Army Command. He graduated from Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mt. Holly, NJ. He changed his name circa the publication of his first book to Harrison Gradwell Slater.
A pianist, he studied with Anthony di Bonaventura and for many years with Paul Doguereau, the noted French pianist who was a pupil of Ravel, Emma Bardac (second wife of Claude Debussy) and Paderewski. In addition to writing and recording, Slater coached many world-class pianists, and served as chairman and Artistic Director of the Peabody Mason International Piano Competition.
Biography
Harrison Gradwell Slater Wignall combined the careers of musicologist, pianist and novelist. He has published three books on Mozart, the last of which is the mystery novel NightMusic, which deals with the life and music of Mozart. The sequel, Nocturne, explores Chopin's biography and music within a contemporary narrative.
The public source identifies “Harrison Slater” as musicologist, pedagogue, pianist, impresario, writer, author, educator. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Harrison, Slater and Musicologist.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5665854. VIAF identifies the subject as 11664718. The Library of Congress control number is n2002032188. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harrison Slater” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.