Joseph Di Ponio has composed music for concert performances, art installations, theater productions, and silent films. His concert music can be heard on solo and chamber music recitals throughout the US and Canada, and is often inspired by the visual arts, particularly the paintings of Barnett Newman, the video installations of Gary Hill, and the sculptures of Richard Serra. In general, his work addresses issues of aural history and temporality and is greatly influenced by contemporary thought on time and being.
Joseph has composed pieces for Timetable Percussion, Yarn/Wire, Iktus Percussion, the Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, the 2009 Armory Show, violinists Benjamin Robison and Jubal Fulks, and flutist Margaret Lancaster. His music has been performed at Alice Tully Hall, as well as at institutional venues including Luther College, Davidson College, Goucher College, Yale University, and The Juilliard School. Joseph’s works have also been featured on concerts presented by Alia Musica (Pittsburgh) and at the Accidental Music Festival, North River Music Festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. He is currently the co-director of Ensemble Ipse, which is active in performing and commissioning works from composers of diverse aesthetic profiles.
In addition to his concert-length acoustic and electro-acoustic works, Joseph is increasingly interested in large-scale electronically generated sound environments, as well as site-specific works of long duration. Current projects include a work for seven violas (for Stephanie Griffin), a large-scale open form piece for modern and historic wind instruments, and a thirty-two-hour piece for electronics with optional live performers based on Corelli’s “La Folia.”
His work has been honored with grants from ASCAP, NYSCA, New Music USA, and the Queens Council for the Arts. He has served as a composer-in-residence for Exploring the Metropolis (ConEd Composer’s Residency), the Accidental Music Festival, and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and has been a guest speaker at Luther College and Pacific Lutheran University.
Joseph holds degrees from Western Michigan University (BM) and the Hartt School (MM) and completed his PhD in music composition at SUNY Stony Brook. His primary teachers include Robert Carl, James Sellars, Daria Semegen, Sheila Silver, Daniel Weymouth, and Ramon Zupko. While at Stony Brook, he studied philosophy and aesthetics with Hugh Silverman and Donald Kuspit, earning an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Philosophy and the Arts. He has contributed to exhibition catalogs for the Queens Museum and the AC Institute, and has presented papers on the relationship of music to the other arts.