Terry Harr was born and raised in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both of his parents had a great appreciation of music and Terry benefitted from having family members in show business. His great aunt, Marge Nelson was a singer, performing in theaters and speakeasies in the 1930's and 40's. His great uncle, Nat Nazzaro, was a dancer and master of cermonies with Flo Ziegfeld. Terry was fortunate to have a strong educational background which included music lessons on piano and clarinet. By age 14, after notating his first composition,"Major Minor Haunt", it was clear that he had a gift in music and would be bound to pursue it.
In the mid 60's, Terry's first band, "The Lost Souls" was a local favorite in the area, playing at pool parties, high school dances and fraternity parties at The University of Pittsburgh. After high school graduation and a brief try at engineering school, Terry pursued a degree from Duquesne University in Music Education which he completed in 1973. Although Duquesne offered a well-rounded exposure to music, his real education came from the musical experiences he found in town and on the road from 1969 - 1973. In town, he played sax and electric piano in the top forty blues band,"Urban Renewal", at nightclubs in Pittsburgh. He also was a member of Vito DiSalvo's "We Three" dance group, which is now the premier Italian band in the Pittsburgh area. Terry travelled with the show band, "The Caldwells" throughout the north-east and mid-west between semesters, playing sax with Bobby Vinton and opening for Anita Bryant, Boots Randolf, Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer and The Association.
After graduation from Duquesne, he started the jazz-rock band "Sunship" with good friend, Nick Gimiliano, the superb drummer seen on the ongoing PBS series, "My Music". After touring the hotel and club circuit for two years, Terry moved to Miami, Florida for the sunshine and new experiences. While recording for gospel producer Timmy Thomas at TK Studios in Miami, Terry hooked-up with George 'Rock Your Baby' McCrae and ended up doing an eye-opening reality tour of South Africa in March and April of 1979.
In the early '80's, an opportunity arose from Columbia Pictures and Terry became a staff arranger there, compiling over 2500 piano/vocal/guitar arrangements during a twenty-two years and running relationship with Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros., Hal Leonard and Cherry Lane Publications. In this capacity, Terry got to work first hand with Dave Brubeck, Henry Mancini, David Foster and many other notable artists and writers, arranging their music.
Splitting time with his corporate responsibilities, Terry played with many rock musicians in the Miami area, leading him to "Windstar", which became a two-time winner on the second and third seasons of "StarSearch", the Ed McMahon talent discovery show. After touring in California and Colorado with 'Windstar', through networking with musicians in South Florida, Terry met Dion Dimucci and toured the United States and Europe behind Dion's album, "Yo Frankie". It was during this time Terry met producer Dick Clark, and performed on various television and live shows, including "Rockin' New Year's Eve" in Los Angeles and "BBC Studio One" in London.
By 1994, Terry was ready to do more writing, recording and some teaching. He moved to Eustis, Florida, a small town outside of Orlando, where he lives with his wife, Sue, producing music at Terrific Studios and performing jazz, blues and solo piano at local establishments. He has produced three solo CD's - the first two all original material- a mix of jazz/funk, blues and pop. The third CD,"Classic Harbor" features classical melodies. Terry also produced two albums with Elira Ben-Avari, Sanskrit vocalist, in the world music arena. Terry is currently working on a new collection,"Solitude", due for completion in the fall of 2008. Besides working as a free-lance arranger, he is currently an adjunct music instructor at Lake-Sumter Community College and Beacon College in Leesburg, Fl., teaching Jazz Vocal, History of Jazz, and Vocal Performance.
