harpsichord/organ
Joseph Gascho began studying harpsichord with Webb Wiggins at the Peabody Conservatory in 2000. Two years later, he won first prize in the 5th Irving and Mae Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, and also won a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council for solo performance. His other teachers include Arthur Haas and Lisa Crawford.
He performs frequently as a soloist, chamber musician and continuo player, including recent collaborations with Opera Lafayette, the Washington Bach Consort and the Orchestra of the 17th Century, and at the Smithsonian Institute, the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and the Capitol Hill Chamber Music Festival. He also made an American premiere recording of a newly discovered aria by J.S. Bach for National Public Radio with soprano Ah Hong.
In the fall of 2004, he performed in a production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, France, and directed a concurrent chamber music program there. He recently conducted Vivaldi’s Eurilla e Alcindo at the University of Maryland, and Handel’s Tamerlano with Baltimore’s Opera Vivente. He has upcoming engagements with both those groups, as well as with George Washington University, where he was also recently appointed harpsichord instructor.
He is pursuing a D.M.A. at the University of Maryland, where he also teaches basso continuo. He also coaches chamber music and coordinates accompanying at the Amherst Early Music Festival. He has performed at that festival, as well as at Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute and the International Baroque Institute at Longy.
Mr. Gascho was music director and conductor of the Peabody Chamber Opera’s early music program, Pastorale & Masque in 2006.