His full-length portrait painted by Earl Bradbury in 1950 hangs in the Harding Band Building.
Unfortunately, Jennie died shortly after his birth, and Conway moved his son to Paris, Illinois, to live with his maternal grandparents, Vincent and Mary Stewart.
The corps traveled by train to Canton, Ohio in 1896 to play at a political campaign rally for presidential candidate William McKinley.
Since the School of Music was growing rapidly, Professor Lawrence had less time available to spend with the band.
The first formal band concert of record had been played 3 May 1892 at the Walker Opera House in Champaign.
[6] He was listed as both conductor and director of the Military Band for the first time in the program for the 1908 annual spring concert.
On Commencement Day, 11 June 1913, Harding married Margaret Rogers, a high school friend from Paris.
He played at the Walker Opera House and joined the Knights of Pythias Band, eventually becoming its conductor.
In 1910 he became director of the Urbana Commercial Club Band for its summer concert series.
Frederic B. Stiven, director of the School of Music, replaced him as the University Orchestra conductor in 1931.
In July 1922 there was sufficient interest among students, faculty and townspeople that a Summer Band was organized at the university to play Twilight Concerts similar to those given in the spring.
Published concert music consisted mainly of transcriptions of orchestral music for small bands of limited ability and instrumentation, so he began to transcribe brilliant, colorful orchestral compositions to fit the instrumentation and ability of his band.
"[1] The Concert Band became well known away from the campus through annual spring tours and weekly radio broadcasts that were well established by 1927.
Band concerts in the University Auditorium were popular and well attended by students, faculty and townspeople.
[10] On 29 October 1933 the Concert Band made an all expenses paid trip to Chicago to play at the Century of Progress International Exposition, the World′s Fair.
Among the works Harding conducted were those composed by Saint-Saëns, Respighi, Haydn Wood, Glazunov, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Other guest conductors at various times were Edwin Franko Goldman, Henry Fillmore, Frank Simon, Harold Bachman, Guy Holmes, and Victor Grabel.
[6] According to archivist Phyllis W. Danner, the Sousa band was performing in Champaign, Illinois, in 1906 when they met at a reception.
In order to obtain the collection, Harding wrote letters to the Sousa family and their attorneys.
After a few months the family agreed, and Ray Dvorak, the band assistant at the time, traveled to New York City to retrieve the collection.
[15] These materials are now housed at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, which is open to the public.
In 1956, he succeeded John Philip Sousa and Edwin Franko Goldman as Honorary Life President.
Bierow in Harding's honor was published by the Columbia Band Instruments Company in Chicago.
However he allowed six transcriptions to be published by Neil Kjos Music Company so that the royalties could be used to fund the A.A. Harding Awards given annually to outstanding band members.
The six with dates of publication are: In 2021 Harding was inducted into The Guild of the University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts.
This is a group of noteworthy alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are recognized posthumously for their contributions to the arts.
[17] In 1928 the bands had moved from basement space in University Hall into the Military Office Building, a 1915 wooden frame structure east of the Armory, and remained there until 1956 when work was started on the new building occupying the same site at 1103 South Sixth Street, Champaign.