Joseph F. Young | Conductor

Joseph F. Young currently the Resident conductor with the Phoenix Symphony is responsible for programming, rehearsing and conducting the Pops and Family concerts, the Symphony for the Schools and classroom education concerts. He also conducts special events such as community outreach concerts through out the state of Arizona. Joseph works closely with Music Director Michael Christie on the orchestra’s Classics concert series and in the spring of 2012 he will make his subscription debut.

Increasingly regarded as one of America’s rising young conductors, Joseph was featured in the 2011 League of American Orchestras' prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, hosted by the Louisiana Philharmonic. In the summer of 2010, Joseph participated as one of eight conductors selected from an international pool of candidates in the Jorma Panula International Master class in Porto, Portugal. He was invited to return to Portugal in March 2011 to conduct a series of concerts with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Foundation Career Grant for young conductors, and was also a finalist for the Conductors Guild’s Thelma A. Robinson Award in the same year.

Prior to joining the Phoenix Symphony, Joseph was an American Conducting Fellow, a program of the League of the American Orchestras. As a Fellow, Joseph worked with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Music Director JoAnn Falletta where he conducted the Philharmonic’s Education, Family, Classics, and Holiday concerts plus special programs. In addition to his conducting duties Joseph worked with the Education Director to create in-school programs and community outreach events.

While completing his studies at the Peabody Conservatory, Joseph worked with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Marin Alsop. Joseph led the orchestra in numerous education and outreach programs and worked closely with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin Alsop, acting as cover conductor for her and for guest conductors such as John Adams, Leonard Slatkin, Arild Remmereit and Jun Märkl.

Joseph completed graduate studies with Gustav Meier and Markand Thaker at the Peabody Conservatory in 2009, earning an artist's diploma in conducting. In 2004, he received his Bachelor of Music degree with an emphasis in music education from the University of South Carolina.