Joshua Shank

The music of Boston-based composer, Joshua Shank (b. 1980), has been called “jubilant…ethereal” (Santa Barbara News-Press), “evocative and atmospheric” (Gramophone), and “emotionally charged” (Boston Classical Review).  He has been commissioned by organizations such as the Lorelei Ensemble, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, the Choral Project, the American Choral Directors Association, and the Association for Music in International Schools. From 2004 to 2014, he served alongside fellow Composers-In-Residence Jocelyn Hagen and Abbie Betinis for the Minneapolis-based professional choir, The Singers, where he collaborated annually to expand and invigorate the repertoire for professional-caliber ensembles through innovative programming as well as new works written specifically for the ensemble.  In 2002, he became the youngest recipient ever of the Raymond W. Brock Composition Award from the American Choral Directors Association. The winning piece, Musica animam tangens, was premiered in Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center, and has since been performed and recorded from Los Angeles to South Africa.  A native of Minnesota, his music was recently featured in a documentary about the extensive choral tradition in the upper Midwest, Never Stop Singing, and his published works have sold over 150,000 copies worldwide.

Joshua received his undergraduate degree in Music Education from Luther College where he studied conducting with Weston Noble.  He has also earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Musicology and Composition, respectively, from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied with Charles Carson, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Donald Grantham, and the late opera composer Daniel Catán.  A fierce advocate for students’ access to music education, he was a public-school teacher in Minneapolis/St. Paul for many years before going on to teach at Gonzaga University, Valley City State University, and Eastern Washington University.  When he’s not writing music, you can probably find him biking, studying vegetarian cooking, or watching hilariously bad movies with his husband, sociologist Robert Ressler.

Learn more at www.joshuashank.com