Guest Artist, Intensive Voice
Maestro Joe Walsh has three decades of experience in preparing, presenting, and conducting opera and musical theater across the U.S. and internationally. He is a conductor admired for his ability to combine dramatic flair and theatrical excitement with sensitivity, detail and a keen sense of dramatic pacing. Mr. Walsh is an active recitalist, accompanying both classical voice recitals and Broadway cabarets.
Maestro Walsh is a faculty member at George Mason University’s Sid and Riva Dewberry School of Music and the School of Theater, where he serves as conductor, music director, coach, and pianist.
Mr. Walsh was involved in the musical preparation of more than 65 productions at Virginia Opera, where he served for 17 years, most recently as associate artistic director and associate conductor. There, Mr. Walsh conducted productions of Susannah, Madame Butterfly, Don Giovanni, The Daughter of the Regiment, Così fan tutte, and The Pirates of Penzance, among others.
He has conducted many orchestras in performances including the Collegium Philarmonicum of Naples, Italy, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony and the Cluj-Napoca Philharmonic Orchestra of Romania.
Mr. Walsh was resident conductor at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy for five summers, where he led productions of The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, and Gianni Schicchi. He studied advanced Italian at Siena’s L’università per Stranieri.
For many years, Mr. Walsh served as artistic advisor for the classical voice programs offered by the Washington D.C. chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters. He has taught voice master classes and judged many vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions (Middle Atlantic District), The National Society of Arts and Letters’ DC Chapter and the National Dorothy Lincoln Smith Voice Competition, Partners for the Arts Vocal Competition, and the Charles Williams Voice Competition at Levine Music, where he also serves on the faculty.
Mr. Walsh has served on the Virginia Commission for the Arts Touring Panel, as well as on the coaching faculties of the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.
He currently serves as President of Orvieto Musica’s Board of Directors and maintains a private coaching studio at his home in Ashburn, Virginia. For further information, visit www.joseph-walsh.com.