Joseph Turbessi
Conductor, Collaborative Pianist & Vocal Coach; Boston, MA
Biography
Joseph Turbessi is a versatile musician in the greater Boston area, maintaining a career as an opera conductor, collaborative pianist, and vocal coach. His piano playing was described by composer/conductor Craig Hella Johnson as an "independent, probing musical voice" with "clear and expressive, singing tone." He holds a MM from the Boston Conservatory.
Mr. Turbessi has conducted and coached at several companies in New England. He is a founder and co-artistic director of the Opera Theater of Cape Cod, which debuted in 2018 with Peter Brook's La Tragédie de Carmen. Since the 2015-16 season he has been associate conductor at the Lowell House Opera of Harvard University, where he conducted performances of Le Comte Ory, Ariadne auf Naxos and the American premiere of Salieri's La Grotta di Trofonio. He has also served as chorusmaster/assistant conductor in the Boston Conservatory Opera Department, coached and conducted at Raylynmor Opera in NH and the Commonwealth Lyric Theater in Boston, and produced and directed his own production of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in partnership with St. Peter’s Church of Cambridge. In the past, he has conducted and coached at New England Conservatory’s Summer Opera Intensive, the Shakespeare Concerts, Hope College's Summer Repertory Theatre, and the Crittenden Opera Workshop.
Mr. Turbessi is a highly sought-after collaborative pianist and organist, particularly for choirs, and has worked with many of the major choirs in greater Boston. He is the resident accompanist for the Boston Conservatory Chorale, the Boston Conservatory Women's Chorus, and Harvard’s Radcliffe Choral Society. In the past he has worked with the Lorelei Ensemble, Chorus Pro Musica, the Harvard University Chorus, the MIT Concert and Chamber Choruses, and many other choruses.
As a solo pianist and organist, Turbessi has presented solo recitals at the Boston Conservatory, St. Peter’s Church in Cambridge, the Jamaica Plain Concert Series, the Chelmsford Center for the Arts, and Equilibrium Concerts. He is an Associate of the American Guild of Organists and currently serves as music director at Old South Union Church in Weymouth, MA.