Dr. Joseph Fleetwood

Piano

Dr. Joseph Fleetwood received his Doctorate in Music from the University of Alabama where he was the Narramore Fellow.  Joseph also holds degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal College of Music in London.

Joseph is highly experienced in two distinct but complementary schools of piano playing: The British school as established by Tobias Matthay, and the central European school established by Czerny, and taught through Leschetizky to the Schnabels. The guiding principles of both schools is beauty of tone and phrasing, in which the music is given space to breath, and the character of the music is allowed to speak to the audience through the performer. The Matthay tradition teaches that beautiful sound comes through physical relaxation and an understanding of the inner workings of both the player’s body and the piano, and the central European tradition teaches that characterization comes through the observation of proportions, and that tone
production is a primary consideration integral to the structure of a piece.

Joseph has held teaching positions at the University of St Andrews and the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Junior Department in Norwich, England. His students have taken part in competitions including the keyboard final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, and have gone to study at prestigious institutions including the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

As a performer Joseph has performed most of the great piano concertos including Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto, Tchaikovsky’s First and Second Concertos, Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, and he is in demand as a collaborative artist having worked with Stephen Clark (Flute, International soloist), Liam Lynch (Violin, Royal Scottish National Orchestra), Thomas Maternick-Piret (Cello, Royal College of Music, Columbus Symphony Georgia), Jenny Gregoire (Violin, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, University of Alabama), Karen Cargill (Mezzo Soprano, Metropolitan Opera) and others.

Selected Performances