Josh Halpern

Joshua Halpern has appeared on stages around the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal cellist. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists including Jonathan Biss, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Roberto Díaz, Viviane Hagner, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Anthony McGill, and Itzhak Perlman, and appeared at music festivals including the Ravinia Steans Institute, the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Taos School of Music, La Jolla Summerfest, Musikiwest, and Krzyzowa-Music. During the 2019 season he served as guest principal cello of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, including on tours to Germany, Taiwan, and China, and in 2020 served as cellist with the Rolston Quartet.

Josh completed his Artist Diploma at The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he performed throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America with Curtis On Tour, and was principal cello of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra during the 2016/17 season. At Curtis he studied with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley. As an undergraduate at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Josh studied with Desmond Hoebig and won the Rice Concerto Competition.

In 2018, he curated a solo tour across Colorado to bring classical music to unexpected places, including the state penitentiary, small-town saloons, bicycle shops, and more. Since then, he has continued bringing music to unique spaces, fostering connection and conversation with all types of people along the way. In 2021, Josh founded the Cultural Caravan in Boulder, CO, a nonprofit bringing together artists and local businesses to revitalize cultural life in the wake of the pandemic. In its inaugural spring/summer season, the Caravan presented 22 concerts through which Josh collaborated with over 20 local businesses and more than 30 artists, including not only his fellow classical artists, but also world-class folk musicians, Venezuelan jazz performers, Afrofusion bands from Zimbabwe, and more.

As a teacher, Josh has presented master classes throughout the United States and South America and has taught at Curtis Summerfest and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and he’s on faculty at the Brooklyn School of Music. He lives in New York.