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Joseph is currently the Brass Tutor at Camberwell Girls' Grammar School and Mount Waverley Secondary College and has been the Brass Tutor at Melbourne Youth Music (MYM) from 2005 to 2008. He is also the Music Director of the Moorabbin Brass Band and was a tutor and conducted at Melbourne University until 2007.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Joseph started to learn the trombone at the age of 12 and won the trombone competition in the Hong Kong School Music Festival, four years consecutively. In 1988, he was also awarded the Aberdeen International Music School Scholarship, which enabled him to participate in the Shell Expo Summer Music School in Aberdeen, Scotland. Joseph entered the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 1989. Already a sought-after freelance trombonist, he performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the then newly formed Hong Kong Sinfonietta. His university studies were put on hold in 1990 when he was awarded the Licentiate of the Royal School of Music (LRSM) with an unprecedented high score and was subsequently awarded the Associated Board of Royal School of Music Scholarship, which enabled him to travel to Manchester, England to study at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM).
It was his years in Manchester that Joseph was exposed to the pinnacle of the world wind band movement. He studied and performed under Timothy Reynish, former President of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), Clarke Rundell, Director of Contemporary Music and Head of Conducting at the RNCM, Howard Snell, former Principal Trumpet of London Symphony Orchestra and internationally renowned brass band conductor and pedagogue and Nick Child, Euphonium Virtuoso and brass band conductor.
In 1995, Joseph was awarded the Professional Performance Diploma (PPRNCM) with Merit, which was only given to three brass candidates that year.
Joseph was active in performing, teaching and conducting in Hong Kong for ten years. At present he still holds the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Hong Kong Young Musicians' Wind Orchestra (HKYMWO), a premium youth band he and his colleagues formed in 2001. Joseph has performed the trombone and conducted wind bands all over the world. He has appeared as soloist in the 10th Conference of the Asia Pacific Band Directors Association (APBDA) in Sydney in 1998, and has performed Gordon Langford's Rhapsody for Trombone and conducted the HKYMWO in the Jeju International Band Festival in 2001.
Joseph came to Melbourne in 2004 with his wife Jennifer, who is also internationally renowned as a concert organist. Together they have performed in the Ballarat Goldfield Organ Festival in 2006 and the XX Festival Internazionale Storici Organi della Valesia (Italy) in 2007.
Joseph was awarded the Master of Music (Trombone Performance) in 2005 from the University of Melbourne. Together with David and Carlos, Joseph co-founded the Youth Bands Program in December 2008 to realize their dreams of providing top notched wind band and ensemble training to the young musicians in Victoria.
Carlos Escobar is currently a second year music student at the Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne). Specialising in performance, he is studying flute under Margaret Crawford and Alison Catanach.
Previous Music Captain of St Kevins College, Carlos scored 47(out of 50) in VCE Music Performance in 2007, which led to an invitation to play at the VCE Top Class Concert for Music Performance, a prestigious performance, only offered to the top 10 students out of the 318 who participated in 2007 . Carlos Escobar’s concert band experience has been vast, participating in several MYM Summer Schools (’06, 07 & 08) and playing with MYSB (Melbourne Youth Symphonic Band) for three years. He has played in a range of community bands in Victoria including Monash Concert Band, Boroondara Concert Band and a recent performance with Grainger Wind Symphony. Musical Orchestra pits are one of Carlos’ most enjoyed performance genres. He’s played in pits for both amateur and professional Musicals including Elton John’s Aida, Pyjama Game and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.
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In the conducting realm, Carlos has been instructed for over 4 years by various teachers. In 2007 he participated in ABODA’s (Australian Band and Orchestra Directors Association) conducting Summer School under Rob McWilliams, an ex-pat now Head of Ensembles at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. He also participated in Symphony Australia’s Scholar Conductor’s program under Christopher Seaman (Previous London Philharmonic Orchestra Percussionist and Current Musical Director of Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra). In the same year Carlos began taking lessons from Mark Shiell (Master in Conducting, Melbourne University). In 2008 he attended again the ABODA Summer School, with David Singh, studying under Paula Crider (Retired Professor Emeritus from University of Texas). Carlos also began taking private lessons from Roland Yeung, current Chief examiner of VCE Music Performance and national president of ABODA. Early in ’08 Carlos participated in the MYM Young Conductor’s Program studying under John Hopkins, Proffessor of Conducting at University of Melbourne, Former Director of VCA, Sydney Conservatorium).
Carlos’ first performance in conducting occurred in 2007 with MYSB, debuting a new piece for Concert Band, by David Keeffe, The Eleventh Day. In 2008 Carlos conducted the combined orchestra of St Kevin’s, Korowa and Sacre Coeur and will do a repeat performance with the orchestra this year. In 2008 he also conducted a clarinet concerto, with MYSB, featuring David Griffiths, teacher of Clarinet at both Melbourne and Monash University.
Carlos conducts the John Mallinson Youth Band’s (JMYB), and is the woodwind tutor.
