Bio

Josh Blessing is an emerging artist in contemporary classical music based in Baltimore, MD. Josh performs regularly as a solo and chamber musician in Baltimore, and has appeared as a soloist in Weill Recital Hall in New York City, and in Waco Hall as a member of the Waco Symphony Orchestra. An advocate of the performance of new music for percussion, Josh has collaborated with numerous contemporary composers including Michael Gordon, Andy Akiho, and Christopher Cerrone. Josh’s repertoire ranges from 20th century classics by Iannis Xenakis and John Cage to works by contemporary composers such as David Lang and Alejandro Viñao.

Josh combines his classical experience with a strong background in rudimental and marching percussion, having appeared as a member of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps, NorthCoast Academy Percussion Ensemble, and Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps where he received a bronze medal for third place at the DCI World Championships in 2016. From 2018-2020 Josh also served as an instructor and music arranger for the Baylor University Drumline.

Currently, Josh is also an active educator serving on the percussion faculty at Bel Air Music Studios in Bel Air, MD. He also teaches private lessons to percussionists in the disciplines of orchestral percussion, drumset, marching percussion, and keyboard percussion.

Josh is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, studying with marimba virtuoso and renowned pedagogue Robert van Sice. He also holds a Master of Percussion Performance and Literature degree from Baylor University where he studied with Dr. Todd Meehan, and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Michigan State University where he studied with Gwendolyn Dease and Dr. Jonathan Weber. While at Baylor, Josh was honored as a winner of the Semper Pro Musica Solo Competition for his performance of Alejandro Viñao’s Burritt Variations.