His father, Joseph Snr, was a professional trumpet player and his mother sang in the Metropolitan Opera chorus, so fine music was heard from an early age at home. Lessons from his father on trombone led to a winning an audition to play with the San Francisco Ballet orchestra at the tender age of 16 and then came a place at the Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia) a year later.
In his third year at Curtis he was asked by one of his teachers (M Dee Stewart) to fill his place in the Philadelphia Orchestra as 2nd Trombone while they auditioned for the permanent job. Joe won the position permanently and stayed for another couple of years, followed by a season at the Montreal Symphony before winning the audition for principal trombine at the New York Philharmonic.
As a soloist Joe has performed several times with the NY Phil, including the concerto by Creston and the world premier of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Rouse concerto which they also recorded on CD. He has also recorded several CDs of important repertoire for trombone and piano ("Slide Area" and "New York Legends"), as well as teaming up with other similar sounding trombonists for two trombone quartet albums ("Four of a Kind" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game").
Joe has devoted a portion of his time to teaching, holding a faculty position at the Julliard School, New York, numerous appearances as clinician and runs a 10 day intensive trombone workshop in the summer, known as the "Alessi Seminar".
Joe's playing is often noted for the particularly rich sound quality and complete technical control. He embodies the American style of a full, almost euphonium-like tone with plenty of vibrato in the solo works.
This heavy approach to the sound is helped with a large instrument (Edwards 0.547") and mouthpiece (his own design, but similar to Bach 3G).
The music he chooses to play encompasses the complete repertoire including aurally challenging 20th works as well as more easy going new works, through to jazz styles and the romantic show-pieces, whilst dabbling in the baroque. Links: