BIO
// Origin: Howell, MI
// Years Active: 2011 - Present
Short Bio
Chamber, solo, and orchestral musician Joseph Swift is a bassoonist whose versatile playing has gathered accolades in many musical settings. An accomplished pedagogue and recording artist, he enjoys a varied career as a performer, educator, arts administrator, and curator of new music.
Joseph has performed with many orchestras across the United States and Canada, in addition to chamber performances throughout the East Coast, Midwest, and London, England. He has performed with the South Bend Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, York Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and Napa Festival Orchestra among others. He also earned a Silver Medal in the Senior Wind Division with the Vanguard Reed Quintet at the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
Joseph is currently the bassoon faculty at the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts, housing the acclaimed New Jersey Youth Symphony and Performing Arts School. Joseph holds degrees from Western Michigan University, the University of Michigan, currently completing his DMA at Stony Brook University. His primary teachers include Robert Williams, Gwendolyn Rose, Jeffrey Lyman, and Frank Morelli. Joseph is an endorsed artist with Key Leaves and bassoon specialist with Silverstein Works, helping to develop their Ambipoly bassoon reed.
Outside of music Joseph enjoys traveling, golfing, speed-solving Rubik’s cubes, fitness, and spending time with his wife Cat and their dog Dunkin. A Michigan native, he is currently located in Somerset, New Jersey.