Harriet Bushman: Mormon Composer

Harriet Petherick Bushman is a composer and musician. She was born and raised in London and started composing while at St. Paul’s Girls’ School. She then trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London and in Florence and Rome, Italy, and Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland. She lived in the Middle East for ten years with her husband, Richard, where she toured as a solo pianist and chamber musician.

Back in England, she scored documentary music for BBC and Channel 4 TV. She also accompanied and wrote for choirs. She composed a musical with lyricist Marita Phillips. She and her husband and two sons moved to Kuwait in 2006, and she collaborated with Alison Shan Price and created musicals, songs, and music for Shakespearean plays (including Othello and The Winter’s Tale). Her compositions include Now Behold (1987, a cantata), Hymns for the Soul (2001, a CD with singers Alex Boye and Fiona Smith), The Dream Dealer (2002, musical for children), 1856 Long Walk Home: A Concert Opera (2006, mp3 and DVD to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Willie and Martin Handcart Company), The Little Prince (2007, musical), and Gideon (2009-2010, a jazz oratorio). She has collaborated with poet Susan Howe on several projects.

Bushman also serves as executive director of Agapanthus and she creates designer silk scarves, coats, ties, and other items that she sells to profit various beneficiaries. She also performs in charity concerts.

She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has served as Relief Society president in her branch in Kuwait.