Harry Rogers Pratt was a professor of music and drama at the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 from 1923 to 1954. Though he had no academic degree, he is credited with several accomplishments, including drawing the composer Randall Thompson

Randall Thompson

Randall Thompson was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works.-Career:He attended Harvard University, became assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley College, and received a doctorate in music from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music...

 to the University and founding the Virginia Players.

Pratt was born in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 and studied music at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 before joining the University of Virginia faculty at the appointment of University president Edwin A. Alderman. He taught music and drama at Virginia and is credited with bringing Randall Thompson and Stephen Tuttle

Stephen Tuttle

Stephen Davidson Tuttle was a musicologist and chairman of the department of music at the University of Virginia , and an associate professor of music at Harvard University...

 to join the music faculty as an associate professor.

Pratt, who directed the Virginia Glee Club

Virginia Glee Club

The Virginia Glee Club is a critically acclaimed men's chorus based at the University of Virginia. It performs both traditional and contemporary vocal works, typically in TTBB arrangements. Founded in 1871, the Glee Club is the University's oldest musical organization and one of the oldest all-male...

 from 1933 through 1943, was remembered as a director who had less polish than those who succeeded him, but who possessed great enthusiasm and who was responsible for bringing the Glee Club to national prominence through radio broadcasts and the group's first New York City performances. His work with the Virginia Players included a world premiere performance of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

's only play, Politian

Politian (play)

Politian is the only play known to have been written by Edgar Allan Poe, composed in 1835 but never completed.The play is a fictionalized version of a true event in Kentucky: the murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jereboam O. Beauchamp in 1825. The so-called "Kentucky Tragedy" became a national...

.