Joe Bricker

Percussion

A “tour de force” performer (Seen and Heard International), percussionist Joseph Bricker is the Associate Principal Timpani/Percussion of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras. Prior to joining the CSO, Bricker was the percussion fellow with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2019-2022. Joe maintains a deep commitment to community engagement and experimenting with educational models within music. In 2020, he co-founded Chicago, From Scratch, a program for students of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative in which students receive unique instruction in creative musical thinking through the lens of contemporary composition and performance. Since 2020, he has also worked with Notes for Peace, a Chicago-based project that works with families who have lost children to gun violence to create new songs in their memory. An advocate for new and contemporary music, Bricker has worked with composers such as Steve Reich, Tyshawn Sorey, Elizabeth A. Baker, Kevin Day, Silvia Borzelli, Vivian Fung, Fredrick Gifford, and numerous others on several premieres and recordings. He has performed as a guest artist on the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, the Literary Music Series, the Live Music Project, Juilliard’s FOCUS! Festival, with the International Contemporary Ensemble, and has curated concerts for fellows of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, in addition to other projects.