Performer ◦ Audio Engineer ◦ Educator
Biography:
During Joseph's time as an undergraduate, he was selected to participate in the 2018 Atlantic Brass Quintet Summer Seminar, a competitive two-week program held at Lawrence Conservatory. At Western, Joseph was the trombonist in the Russell Brown Honors Brass Quintet and was in the Advanced Jazz Ensemble. He was also lead trombone in the University Jazz Orchestra as section leader the past three years and has been selected as a student worker to both the 2018, 2019, and 2020 International Trombone Festivals. Each summer, he organizes and leads a New Orleans style brass band, College Street Brass Band, for his family’s annual crawfish boil. Joseph has also performed at the Iowa City Jazz Festival four years as part of the United Jazz Ensemble and on side stages in various combos. During high school, Joseph was principal trombone for the Quad City Youth Symphony Orchestra and was a member of the University of Iowa Trombone Choir. He was also selected for the Iowa All-State Band, Orchestra, and Jazz Band. He has also attended Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Wisconsin for both their jazz and orchestral programs during high school.
Born in New Orleans, Joseph is a freelance trombonist in Iowa City, Iowa. He graduated with a Bachelors in Music Performance: Trombone and a Minor in Multimedia Arts Technologies from Western Michigan University. During his time there, he studied both classical trombone with Dr. Steve Wolfinbarger and jazz trombone with Dr. Scott Cowan. Prior to this, he studied with Dr. Jonathan Allen at the University of Iowa for three years. While Joseph was living in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he occupied the trombone position in the Kalamazoo Civic Theater Pit and was lead trombone in both the Gull Lake Jazz Orchestra and the Otsego Jazz Ensemble.
When Joseph is not making music, he enjoys being outdoors cycling and hiking in the mountains. He is currently a bike mechanic at Geoff's Bike and Ski in Iowa City. He has also maintained a summer biomedical research position at the University of Iowa doing research on the genetic disease Cystic Fibrosis. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic he spent 8 months working at the University of Iowa State Hygienic Lab running thousands of COVID tests everyday as part of the state funded COVID testing program, Test Iowa. He is a proud Eagle scout and loves to learn.