Photo by Martha Stewart (no, not that one)
About Josh
Thanks so much for stopping by! While I’m one of those concertgoers who will read every word of every formal bio in a program, I’m afraid that method is a little too cold for what I want you to know about me in this space. However, if you need one of those formal bios for something, just keep scrolling down.
I’m a composer who currently lives in Boston, but I’ve lived all over the United States. I grew up in the Midwest but, if asked, I’ll probably tell you I’m from Minneapolis. I spent years there as a public school teacher before moving to Austin for graduate school and, after completing degrees in Composition and Musicology, moved to Washington state. In all those places, I’ve been an educator in some form or another; I proudly come from a family of teachers.
What I’ve loved about being an artist/teacher in all these places is how different each and every community is and how much I’ve learned from that diversity, and my music has begun to reflect that particular way of engaging with the world. Every piece represents my efforts to get to know the folks who show up for those concerts, attend those rehearsals, and manage those inner workings of the organization.
Having taken all those pieces of that community in, I somehow try to bake it into the piece of music I’ve been asked to write. In fact, I don't really see myself as a Composer anymore but, rather, I like to think of myself more as a Collaborator, because it more closely matches how I feel about my role as an artist combined with the vocation of serving others (especially those whose voices have been marginalized in some way); I’m just one link in the chain of composer, conductor, performers, administrators, and audience members. If you wanted to make some music with me that would be awesome.
Also, my pronouns are he/him and, in case you need it for a program, I was born in 1980.
Formal bio
The works of Boston-based composer, Joshua Shank (b. 1980), have been widely performed by educational and professional ensembles alike. His music has been called “jubilant…ethereal” (Santa Barbara News-Press), “evocative and atmospheric” (Gramophone), and the Boston Classical Review called his Magnificat for the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo “powerful” and “emotionally charged.”
His music often features the human voice and focuses on social justice or the amplification of marginalized communities. His work, capable of anything, celebrated the nationwide passage of marriage equality in the United States, and his oratorio, Magnificat for the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, tells the story of the organization of Argentine mothers who campaigned for their children who had been “disappeared” by the military junta that formally ruled the nation. His work, Primavera en silencio, is based on American conservationist Rachel Carson’s landmark 1962 writing on climate change, Silent Spring, and his alleluia (from quarantine) was commissioned by a consortium of 35 ensembles from across the United States in order to raise money for gigging musicians whose livelihoods were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He has been commissioned by ensembles such as True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Lorelei Ensemble, and The Choral Project. From 2004-2014, he served alongside Jocelyn Hagen and Abbie Betinis as Composer-In-Residence for the Minneapolis-based professional choir, The Singers—Minnesota Choral Artists, 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 choir. His work for The Singers, He Was Singing, won the 2021 American Prize in Choral Composition.
In 2002, he became the youngest composer ever awarded the prestigious Raymond W. Brock Composition Award by the American Choral Directors Association. The winning piece, Musica animam tangens (“Music touches the soul”), was premiered in David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Center and has since been performed and recorded all over the world. His music was featured in the 2009 documentary about the extensive choral tradition in the Upper Midwest, Never Stop Singing, and his published works have sold over 175,000 copies worldwide. He is a proud Artistic Founding Partner of Graphite Publishing’s online distribution arm, Graphite Marketplace, where his works can be found under the banner of his publishing company, B&F Music.
In recent years, Joshua has enjoyed writing program notes for various ensembles and composers around the United States. In 2008, he received a grant to write an article for The Singers’ concert celebrating the state of Minnesota’s 150th anniversary as well as its significant contribution to the nation’s history of singing. The University of Michigan commissioned liner notes for their 2023 world premiere recording of Jocelyn Hagen’s evening-length oratorio, amass, on Navona Records, and he collaborated with the Austin-based professional choir, Conspirare, to write extensive notes and give a pre-concert lecture for their 2016 tribute to the late composer, Stephen Paulus, A Lyrical Life, as well as their 2012 album of Samuel Barber’s choral music, Samuel Barber: An American Romantic, released on the Harmonia Mundi label. Based on his graduate research into the historical passion genre, he has also provided program notes and given pre-concert lectures for Craig Hella Johnson’s work, Considering Matthew Shepard for multiple ensembles around the U.S.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Joshua began producing and co-hosting a podcast called Have You Heard This? with award-winning electroacoustic composer Jon Fielder. In each episode, they present works with wildly different aesthetic palettes and attempt to have a healthy, respectful (and often humorous) dialogue with each other.
Joshua received his undergraduate degree in Music Education from Luther College where he studied conducting with Weston Noble, Timothy Peter, and Michael Culloton. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Musicology and Music Composition from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied with Charles Carson, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Donald Grantham, Russell Pinkston, and the late Mexican opera composer, Daniel Catán.
A fierce advocate for students of all ages to have access to music education, he has served as a public school teacher in Minneapolis/St. Paul and taught on the music faculties of 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, alongside their cat, Obergefell.