Concert Soloist

Joseph Petric received his early training at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music, his B.Mus. at Queen's Unversity, an M.A. University of Toronto in musicology with musicologist Rika Maniates, and studies in accordion performance at the Trossingen Hochschule fur Musik with Hugo Noth. He continued to study performance practice with the Vaghy String Quartet, early music with Leslie Huggett, Baroque musics with Colin Tilney, improvisation with Pauline Oliveros, and electroacoustic and multi-media performance with the Canadian Electronic Ensemble.

One of Canada's most respected soloists and collaborative artists, his performances have been nominated for the JUNO, Prix Opus and Hunter Recording Prize, and in 2006 was awarded the prestigious Friend of Canadian Music Award by the Canadian Music Centre.

Joseph's commitment to developing new audiences is a high priority. In 2006 he gave an extended tour for Nova Scotia's Baroque series Musique Royale featuring works by Telemann, Bach, Mozart and a premiere by Andrew MacDonald. He has appeared at some of the worlds major venues with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Orchestra, the Vancouver CBC Chamber Orchestra, the Quebec Symphony, the Nouvel Ensemble Modern, the Boston Modern Orchestra, Concertante di Chicago and the Camerata Roman of Sweden; the string quartets Penderecki, Arriaga, Duke, Vanbrugh, and Alcan; and festivals such as Huddersfield, Tanglewood, Bournemouth, Belfast, Siljan, Agora, Washington, Festival Domaine Forget, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and Festival of the Sound. He has undertaken extended tours for Columbia Artists, John Lewis Partnership, Jeunesses Musicales, Prairie Debut and Encore Atlantic.

Joseph was delighted to be co-artistic director of the 1991 Big Squeeze Accordion Festival in Toronto which saw Mogens Ellegaard in improvisation sessions with Pauline Oliveros, framed by Boozoo Chavis' Cajun stylings ,followed by Friedrich Lips Russian sensibilities, and the unique presentation of accordionists Olivieros, Heidi Velamo, Marta Bene, Tina Kiik, Laurie Rosewarne and Daisy Debolt. In 1993 he was invited by the CBC to the artistic directorship of the Virtuosi Series at the Glenn Gould Concert Hall in Toronto.

Solo activity in future seasons includes the presentation of a new program entitled "The Accordion Now" featuring the works of Berio, Hatzis and Pritchard and an all Scarlatti disc and all Mozart program. His commitment to commissioned works will see the world premieres of solo works by Y.Daoust, C.LeDroit, Erik Ross, Eric Morin as well as a concerto commissioned by New York's Koussevitsky Foundation.