About

Joseph Bertolozzi is a composer with increasingly numerous performances across the US and Europe and two Top Twenty Billboard-charting albums to his credit. Orchestras, conservatories and Grammy® winners perform his music, and he himself has played at such diverse venues as The Vatican, The US Tennis Open and the Eiffel Tower. For a full bio see the PRESS KIT page on this website. Additionally, the Adriance Memorial Library in his home town of Poughkeepsie, NY has an extensive collection of his sheet music, press, posters and other artifacts relating to his career.

BRIEF TIMELINE

  • 1959 – Born in Poughkeepsie, NY
  • 1968 – Begins organ lessons with Raymond Canfield Corey (and later Kay & Donald Pearson) with the express desire to learn how to write down his own music. He begins composing.
  • 1975 – First musical job: Organist and Co-Director of Music at St. Joseph’s R.C. Church, Poughkeepsie, NY. Click here for a list of all Bertolozzi’s music directorships.
  • 1979 – Plays an organ recital at the Vatican; studies composition at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy.
  • 1982 – First solo concert tour of Europe: Italy, Poland, Spain.
  • 1985 – Second concert tour of Europe, touring Portugal for the US State Dept.
  • 1988 – Resumes composing as primary focus rather than organ performance. Major orchestral, choral and vocal works follow, such as “An Age Will Come…”, Bosko & Admira, Grand Motets for the Sacred Triduum, The Contemplation of Bravery, Suite Poughkeepsie and Eili, EIli: O Lord My God.
  • 2002 – Develops The Bronze Collection, becomes a percussionist.
  • 2004 – Begins plans for Bridge Music.
  • 2009 – Bridge Music launches as a permanent installation. The Bridge Music album (Delos, DE 1045) goes to #18 on Billboard Magazine’s Classical Crossover Music Charts.
  • 2011 – Receives permission to create Tower Music on the Eiffel Tower.
  • 2016 – Tower Music is released (innova #933), reaching #11 on the iTunes Classical Chart & #16 on Billboard’s Classical Crossover Chart.
  • 2018 – The Tower Music Percussion 5tet is premiered by Left Edge Percussion, Terry Longshore director, at Southern Oregon University.
  • 2022 – The Bridge Music Dance Project premieres as both a live event with nine dance companies and then a documentary film.
  • 2023 – Tower Music Dance Project in development

DISCOGRAPHY

  • TOWER MUSIC / MUSIQUE DE LA TOUR – Joseph Bertolozzi at the Eiffel Tower, innova #933 (reaching #11 on the iTunes Classical Chart and #16 on the Billboard Classical Crossover Chart)
  • DELOS’ 40th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION! ENCORES: 13 CHOICE BONUS TRACKS – a companion to the 40-for-40 Collection including The River That Flows Both Ways from Bridge Music. DE1630, Delos
  • PETE SEEGER: THE STORM KING – Stories, Narratives, Poems: Spoken Word Set to a World of Music by Pete Seeger on his final studio album. Percussionist (gongs) on the track “Father.” 2-11830, Hachette Audio.
  • THE NYFA COLLECTION: 25 YEARS OF NEW YORK NEW MUSIC – a 3-disk anthology including Meltdown from Bridge Music. INN 233, Innova.
  • BRIDGE MUSIC – Joseph Bertolozzi at the Mid Hudson Bridge, DE1045, Delos (reaching #18 on Billboard’s Classical Crossover Chart)
  • TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF EXCELLENCE, VOL. 3 – The USMA Concert Band, with SFC Harry F. Ditzel, horn, and CPT Tod Addison, conductor, featuring The Contemplation of Bravery. An official United States Military Academy Bicentennial Commemorative CD. WPB103, West Point. Currently not for sale, promotional use only.
  • THE CONTEMPLATION OF BRAVERY – Seattlemusic, Joel Suben, conductor featuring Suite Poughkeepsie, The Contemplation of Bravery, & “An Age Will Come…” BWP 8806, Blue Wings Press.
  • SONGS & WALTZES – Joseph Bertolozzi piano, BWP4288, Blue Wings Press.
  • THE BRONZE COLLECTION – Joseph Bertolozzi percussion, BWP7904, Blue Wings Press.
  • CLASSIC PRAISE – with Michael Sust, baritone, Troy Rowley, trumpet and Jo Deen Blaine Davis, organ, featuring The Trumpet of Salvation. Prays! Music Publishing.
  • RECORDED IN THE YEAR 2000 – Marjorie Jacskon Rasche, organ, featuring Chorale Prelude on “Fulda” and Tarantella. Private issue, from Moody Methodist Church, Galveston, Texas.
  • OUR HOMETOWN: POUGHKEEPSIE – March 2001. WMHT Telecommunications (PBS, Schenectady, NY) documentary, with The Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Randall Craig Fleisher, conductor in music from Suite Poughkeepsie for the broadcast itself and in a bonus music video track at the end.
  • THE TEAM – original 1978 cast recording, reissued on CD by Blue Wings Press in 2000.

BOOKS

  • ENVIRONMENTAL SOUND ARTISTS – Bianchi & Manzo, Oxford University Press, 2016 – contributing a full dedicated chapter on Bridge Music and Tower Music.
  • BEACON PIPES – a historical overview of the pipe organs of Beacon, NY, 2013
  • BEACONS OF MUSIC – text writer for a photographic book of the musicians of Beacon, NY, (with The Rutigliano Group)

AWARDS

  • Dutchess County Executive’s Arts Award for Art in Public Places for “Bridge Music,“ 2022
  • New Music USA Project Grant for the Tower Music Percussion Quintet, 2018
  • A.S.C.A.P. Standard Award, 2016-1991
  • Dutchess County Executive’s Artist’s Award, 2012,  for Art in Public Places, shared with the Rutigliano Group for Beacons of Music.
  • Dutchess County Arts Council (NYSCA): Individual Artist Fellowship in Music Performance, 2011
  • Dutchess County Executive’s Artist’s Award, 2009
  • New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Music Composition, 2008
  • Dutchess County Arts Council (NYSCA): Individual Artist Fellowship in Music Composition, 2004; general support and project grants: 2003, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1993, 1989, 1982.
  • Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program, 1998, 1992.
  • Meet The Composer, 1989, 1984.
  • US State Department (USIS), 1985 (organ concert tour of Portugal).

EDUCATION

  • Much self education thanks to parents who encouraged reading, utilizing Poughkeepsie’s Adriance Memorial Library and Vassar College’s Skinner Music Library.
  • Vassar College, BA composition/theory with Richard Wilson.
  • Accademia Musicale Chigiana, (Siena, Italy), composition with Donatoni and Xenakis.
  • Juilliard School of Music Evening Division, theory with Emily White.
  • Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop, contemporary conducting techniques with Boulez.
  • Westminster Choir College, courses in sacred music at summer sessions with Helen Kemp and John Bertalot in Children’s Choirs, and Don Ivey in Handbells.
  • National Pastoral Musicians Summer Sessions, with Michael Joncas in Liturgy and James Hansen in Cantor Studies.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS