bio

Joseph Brent has brought a consummate artistry and dedication to the mandolin, and has helped to bring his instrument into the 21st century.

Graduating from the Berklee College of Music in 1999 with a focus on contemporary music, he immediately began working closely with many of the great modern composers, having premiered or performed works by Elliot Carter, Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Olga Neuwirth, David Loeb, and Nathan Davis, among many others, and has lectured on contemporary music at New York's Museum of Modern Art. He has performed with many well-known chamber ensembles in New York, including The International Contemporary Ensemble, Argento Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, Fireworks Music, Tres Americas, and Henry Street Chamber Opera. Concurrently, he is thoroughly versed in the traditional orchestral repertoire, performing regularly with The Boston Symphony, The American Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet and City Opera, New Jersey Symphony, Juilliard Opera and Ballet Orchestras, and the Chelsea Symphony. As a solo artist, he has given recitals and clinics North and South America, Europe, and Asia, and made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2001 with the New England Philharmonic Ensemble in a program of new music. In 2007, he was featured soloist with the Orchestra a Pizzico Ligure in several performances throughout northern Italy, and performed in the Miller Theatre portrait of Elliot Carter, conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky, in celebration of the composer's 99th birthday. With Iranian-born author and performance artist Amir Parsa, he has presented multi-media staged readings and demonstrations, including the recent Engendered Festival at the Halvai Gallery. In 2008, he was a featured performer and clinician at the Classical Mandolin Society of America annual convention in Montreal, and performed in an all-Carter program at the Tanglewood Music Festival under the direction of James Levine. In 2009 he headlined the Hildener Meisterkurs für Mandoline und Guitarre in Düsseldorf, Germany, and performed with Tres Américas Project at the Festival Internacional de Música Clásica Contemporánea in Lima, Peru. That same year he and with his duo partner, harp virtuoso Bridget Kibbey, were named amongst the first artists to participate in the Weill Music Institute's Carnegie Hall Musical Connections program.

Simultaneously, he has maintained an active career in popular and improvising music. He has performed with Woody Allen, Stephane Grappelli, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, Tommy Tune, Sam Moore (from Sam and Dave), and Kevn Kinney. In 2010 he debuted the Joe Brent Quartet, featuring his own compositions and arrangements, with Nadav Lev on guitar, Shawn Conley on bass and Ken Robinson on clarinet.

In 2007, his two books of mandolin pedagogy, Scales and Arpeggios for the Mandolin and Orchestral and Chamber Excerpts for Mandolin were published by Lulu to great acclaim. That same year, he released his debut album, Point of Departure, featuring duets with Ms. Kibbey. In 2010, he recorded the complete mandolin works of David Loeb for the Vienna Modern Masters label. Joseph Brent is on the faculty of the Mannes School of Music Extension Division, the first mandolin instructor to hold a faculty position with a major American conservatory.