Joseph Bousso

Born in New York and based in Berlin, Joseph Bousso has conducted the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa (Canada), the AIMS Orchestra in Graz (Austria) and the National Radio Orchestra of Romania (Bucharest). In New York, he’s conducted performances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls. Known for his exhilarating nuanced performances, expressive technique and ability to inspire musicians and audiences, Mr. Bousso has conducted a wide range of orchestral and operatic repertoire.

In collaboration with the opera house of Magdeburg (Germany), he conducted 14 open air fully staged sold out performances of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story in Cathedral Square, reaching an audience of over 20,000. With the Rhenish Philharmonic he conducted Dvořák’s Stabat Mater as a ballet and Swan Maidens, an evening of dance featuring music of Sibelius, Hallgrimsson and Lutosławski.

Other engagements include conducting the Goettingen Symphony Orchestra, the Brandenburg State Orchestra of Frankfurt-Oder, the Freiburg Philharmonic and the State Opera Orchestras of Weimar and Mannheim.

As Resident Conductor (1. Kapellmeister) of the Koblenz Opera House, Mr. Bousso has conducted New Year’s Day Concerts and productions of The Bartered Bride (Smetana) and Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns), for which he received rave reviews. Other performance credits include Eugene Onegin, Die Fledermaus, Peter Grimes, The Abduction from the Seraglio and Salome. Earlier in his career, he served as Music Director of the Hamburg Youth Orchestra and Coach and Conductor at the Hamburg State Opera House.

A winner in the 2011 International Conducting Competition “Little Paris” in Bucharest, Mr. Bousso is also an accomplished pianist. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists, from Sumi Jo, Ittai Shapira and George Gagnidze, to Alexander Schimpf, Anna Smirnova and Bernd Weikl.

Fascinated by the tonal spectrum of the orchestra and its repertoire, Mr. Bousso began his conducting studies at age 10. He went on to obtain degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, where he studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller. Mr. Bousso was also mentored in master classes by Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, and Yo-Yo Ma.

When asked about his artistic purpose, Joseph Bousso says, “I believe in the power of music to generate positive change in the world. My role is to set up a trusting environment to elicit the magic that’s possible between musicians and audiences. The magic that leads to connection, community and hope.”

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