about

Pianist Joseph Vaz has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician across North America and Europe, in venues from Carnegie Hall to the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna.

Born in Faro, Portugal, Joseph now lives in New York City, where he is the 2025-2027 piano fellow for Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. Vaz has studied with renowned performers and pedagogues, including Julian Martin, Ran Dank, and Emile Naoumoff. He is a laureate of several national and international competitions, with recent performances at the Pacific Stars International (2nd Prize), James Mottram International Piano Competition, the Keyboard Odyssiad, and the Wideman International Piano Competition.

Joseph frequently performs at international festivals, including recent appearances at the Gilmore Piano Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Lucerne Festival Academy, and Aspen Music Festival. He has been lucky to have the opportunity to collaborate alongside Charles Neidich, Marin Alsop, Susan Botti, Emile Naoumoff, Mike Block, Peter Volpe, David Krakauer, and other inspirational mentors, and to perform for several acclaimed artists and pedagogues, including Byron Janis, Gabriela Montero, Robert Levin, Tamara Stefanovich, Jon Nakamatsu, Ursula Oppens, Shai Wosner, Mark Steinberg, Misha Amory, David Dubal, George Benjamin, and Beat Furrer, among others. His orchestral debut came with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra in 2015, and he has also performed as soloist with Harmonia Orchestra Seattle, the Seven Hills Sinfonietta and other orchestral ensembles.

Joseph is a dedicated collaborator, and regularly performs chamber music on series in New York City and beyond. As a proponent of new music, Joseph has worked closely with several composers on pieces for world premieres. His debut album, “Galanteries: The Solo Piano Music of William White,” was released by PARMA Recordings in January 2025, and has been heard on radio stations throughout the USA (WMBR, KKUP, WCVE, WRUV). 

Joseph holds degrees from the CUNY Graduate Center, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Apart from music, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a minor in French from Indiana University, and loves reading modernist literature.

Joseph is a regular contributor to Tone Prose, a weekly newsletter about the ever-changing world of classical music.