Harms studied piano as a high school student at the Ottawa University Academy with Norma Utt and Lucy Forbes.
In 1925, Harms was heard by Alexander Brailowsky, who prophesied "a future on the concert stage" for the young pianist.
[2] Harms followed Margolies to New York City in spring of 1926, working intensively with her to prepare for an audition with Josef Hofmann.
[5] In 1931, he began teaching at Curtis himself, first as a secondary piano instructor, and then later as an assistant to Hofmann's replacement, Rudolf Serkin.
[7] Harms performed the first movement of the Rubinstein D Minor Concerto with the Curtis Symphony and Fritz Reiner in 1933 on a nationwide radio broadcast.