Joshua Edward

Joshua Edward is an American conductor and composer based in Porto, Portugal.

As a conductor, he has led works in North America, South America, and Europe. His experience has placed particular emphasis on opera and contemporary music, conducting world-premieres on multiple continents and cultivating artistic relationships with some of today’s most important composers. In 2023, he was invited to be the inaugural conducting fellow for the Lake George Music Festival in New York. He holds an artist diploma in conducting from the Richard Wagner Konservatorium in Vienna, Austria where he studied with Christian Schulz and was an assistant conductor for the opera program Vienna Summer Music Festival.

As a composer, Edward has had pieces performed by The Rhythm Method string quartet in New York, Quarteto L’Arianna in São Paulo, Brazil, the Pepperdine Wind Ensemble in Malibu, California and many other ensembles. He has been mentored by premiere American composers such as Ted Hearne, Nina Young and Frank Ticheli. He holds a masters degree in composition from the University of Southern California.

He is currently working on his PhD in orchestral conducting and composition at the University of Aveiro in Portugal and UNICAMP in Brazil.

Doctoral project

Title
The Socially Committed Conductor-Composer: Collaborative Creation as Critical Artistic Praxis

Advisor
Henrique Portovedo

Co-advisor Francisco Zmekhol Nascimento de Oliveira (UNICAMP) / Cinthia Alireti (Orquestra Sinfônica da Unicamp)

Abstract
A investigação centra-se na elaboração de um caminho para uma praxis artística crítica para o maestro-compositor contemporâneo. Esta praxis procura contribuir para a luta pela justiça social através da criação de projetos artísticos colaborativos. A investigação será estruturada em torno de três projetos orquestrais colaborativos (um em Portugal e dois no Brasil) em que as ferramentas de direção e composição serão utilizadas para criar arte engajada com orquestras parceiras. Os projetos serão orientados pela abordagem de investigação artística, práticas de investigação partilhadas (Sardo, 2017) e serão elaborados dentro de uma conceção flexível de investigação qualitativa (Robson, 2024).

Keywords
Critical artistic praxis; Socially engaged art; Artivism; Artistic research; Conductor-composer