Joseph Thalken, piano

Joseph Thalken is an award-winning composer, conductor and pianist whose theater and concert works have been performed internationally. A recipient of two Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Musical Theater Commendations, a Meet the Composer award, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, his work has received generous support from the Shen Family Foundation, which included Mr. Thalken in their Musical Theater Composers Initiative.

He recently conducted the Dallas Chamber Symphony in the world premiere of his new chamber orchestra work, Chasing Home, commissioned by Bruce Wood Dance. He is also the composer of the musicals Harold and Maudee Was, And the Curtain Rises, Fall of ‘94 and Borrowed Dust, and his concert works encompass chamber, choral, orchestral, wind ensemble and vocal music.

He has also served as music director and/or arranger for luminaries of Broadway and classical music, including Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Renée Fleming, Polly Bergen, Rebecca Luker, Faith Prince, Marin Mazzie, Elizabeth Futral, Catherine Malfitano, Denyce Graves, Joshua Bell, Michael Crawford, Howard McGillin, Jason Danieley, Nathan Gunn and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

After graduating from Northwestern University, he spent five years in Europe, where he worked as a coach, conductor and composer. He has taught music theater composition at Yale University and is a long-time resident of New York City.