“I sensed early on that the accordion was a powerful artistic medium ... my approach from the beginning was inclusive and embraced memory and sociologies..."

Raised in Acton, Ontario, Joseph Petric was taken to his first accordion lesson with a local teacher by his father at age 5. It was an experience that influenced the course of his life. He continued informal studies until he enrolled at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music aged 17. A Bachelor of Music degree as an accordion major at Queen's University and a Musicology M.A. with Rika Maniates at the University of Toronto followed.

In 1977 Joseph moved to Germany and was the first North American accordionist to study with Hugo Noth. In the same year he began his decade long correspondance with John Cage and David Tudor, established his notable collaboration with luthier Leo Niemi, and initiated the first of his 201 commissioned works from composer Daniel Foley.

“ Though I began my career with the piano accordion, I settled on the chromatic button C system accordion based on the Italian lineage of builders in the ateliers Savioa 1905, Vercelli 1908, and Hohner 1912..."

Parallel to winning the CBC Radio Auditions, Petric recorded his first CBC and Societe Radio Canada broadcasts,and was invited by Bob Aitken to perform with Toronto's New Music Concerts and Serge Garant with Montreal's Societe de Musique Contemporaine du Quebec. He continued studies in anatomy, neurological function, acoustics and instrument construction all paralleled by a full teaching load and ongoing commissioning schedule.

By 1989 he began collaborative improvisations and performances in a duo with Pauline Oliveros (1989-1994). During this period he also began to develop a new electroacoustic performance art inspired by the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, and became committed to the study of the interpretive art of different epochs with harpsichordist and fortepianist Colin Tilney, Leslie Huggett, and fortepianist Boyd McDonald.