Director / Double Bass
joseph.conyers@project440.org

Recently featured in a Mutual of Omaha television commercial (click here for more info) and profiled in Ebony Magazine as one of 30 Leaders 30 and Younger, Joseph Conyers is the new assistant principal bassist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  He won the position after a one and a half year tenure with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, three and a half years as principal bass of the Grand Rapids Symphony, and four summers as a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra.

Described by the Grand Rapids Press as “a lyrical musician who plays with authenticity that transcends mere technique,” Conyers performed as soloist with his own Grand Rapids Symphony in a concerto commissioned by the GRS and written for him entitled “Prayers of Rain and Wind” by John B Hedges. He has also soloed with the Alabama Symphony, Flagstaff Symphony, the Savannah Symphony and Civic Orchestras, and the Sphinx Symphony having won second prize at the 2004 Sphinx Competition in Detroit, MI. In June 2010, Conyers will make a solo appearance with the Dekalb Symphony Orchestra (GA) performing the Koussevitzky Bass Concerto.

Conyers has performed all throughout the United States and Europe. He was principal (solo) bass of the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra with whom he traveled extensively and recorded on the Naxos label. Conyers has been a fellowship student and held principal positions at numerous music festivals including the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland, Brevard Music Center, and the Britten-Pears Music Festival in England. Conyers has performed in a number of orchestras including the Boston and Detroit Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a number of prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.

A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Conyers attended The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and graduated with his bachelors degree studying with both Hal Robinson, principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and double bass soloist Edgar Meyer. Other mentors have included David Warshauer, Daniel Swaim, and Albert Laszlo. In 1999 he was one of the first guests on NPR’s “From the Top” with host Christopher O’Riley on one of its pilot shows. He was the inaugural recipient of the Sanford Allen Award (a $10,000 prize) from the Sphinx Competition, and in February of 2010, he was the first Sphinx Competition laureate to serve on the distinguished jury panel for the competition.

Sometimes juggling a studio of over a dozen students, Conyers is committed to education and community engagement through music. He is heavily involved in developing curriculum for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Sound Learning program – a program that integrates music into the regular school curriculum at a local elementary school. During the summer of 2010 he will join an internationally renowned roster as faculty at the inaugural summer of the West Branch International Music Festival and Academy. He was an adjunct professor of bass at Calvin College (MI), and continues a connection with the school as faculty at the annual Calvin College String Summit. He has also served on faculty at the Masterworks Music Festival in Winona Lake, IN in 2009.

Conyers performs on the “Zimmerman/Gladstone” 1802 Vincenzo Panormo Double Bass which he has affectionately named “Norma.”