Bradley Joseph
Bradley Joseph (born 1965) is an American composer, arranger, and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His compositions include works for orchestra, quartet and solo piano, while his musical style ranges from "quietly pensive mood music to a rich orchestration of classical depth and breadth".[1]
Bradley Joseph
1965 (age 58–59)
Bird Island, Minnesota, United States
Willmar, Minnesota, United States
- Composer
- arranger
- record producer
- musician
- Keyboards
1983–present
Active since 1983, Joseph has performed in front of half a million people around the world.[2] He played various instruments in rock bands throughout the Midwest until 1989 when Greek composer Yanni hired him for his core band after hearing a tape of his original compositions. He was a featured concert keyboardist with Yanni through six major tours, most recently in 2003 for the 60-city Ethnicity tour. He appears in the multi-platinum album and concert film, Live at the Acropolis. Joseph also spent five years as musical director and lead keyboardist for Sheena Easton, including a 1995 performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Joseph is the founder of the Robbins Island Music label. His solo career began when he independently released Hear the Masses, featuring many of his Yanni bandmates. This debut was followed by Rapture, an instrumental album recorded with a 50-piece orchestra in which Joseph wrote and conducted all of the scores. It was released on the Narada label and reached ZMR Airwaves Top 30. A number of subsequent recordings including Christmas Around the World and One Deep Breath also held positions on ZMR's Top 100 radio chart, with the most recent being Paint the Sky which debuted at #15 in April 2013. Paint the Sky was nominated for Best Neo-Classical Album in the 10th annual ZMR Music Awards.[3] He has produced numerous CDs/DVDs and piano books. His music is included in multiple various-artist compilation albums including the 2008 release of The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II.
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Bradley Joseph was born in Bird Island, Minnesota and raised in Willmar, Minnesota,[4] graduating from Willmar Senior High School in 1983.[5] He learned how to play piano from a how-to piano book he found in the piano bench.[6] One morning his father taught him how to play a boogie-woogie blues tune and by nightfall he could play the entire piece.[7] He started playing classical piano at age eight,[7] taking lessons for a year and a half but was self-taught thereafter.[6] While in junior high, he took a concert field trip where he saw Buddy Rich perform. He recalls, "I sat in the first row and when Buddy's sax player stood up to take his first solo something just clicked — the world closed in around me. I felt the power of music and knew that it was something special, a gift to be shared."[7] Joseph played piano for the jazz band and choir in high school,[8] and trombone through high school and college.[9] When he picked up the horn, he got a whole new perspective on music, gaining insight into all the different timbres available, which was invaluable to him when he started working with orchestras.[10] The first band he was in was a wedding dance band which allowed him to gain experience in every different style of music from polkas to rock and roll to jazz classics.[6] After attending Moorhead State University as a music major, he led some of his own bands around the area that toured Midwest nightclubs. He played sax and guitar in some of these earlier bands but left them to concentrate on just the piano/keyboards.[9] Later, he started performing with guitarist Dugan McNeill, whose U2-like group was signed to Polygram.[7]
Yanni[edit]
In 1989, Joseph recorded his first demo tape and sent it off to Greek composer Yanni, who was looking for someone to replace keyboardist John Tesh, as Tesh was launching his own solo career.[11] When Yanni heard Joseph's compositions and arrangements, he was hired over the phone to join his core band, without ever meeting.[9]