Joseph Rodriguez is an international orchestral musician, recitalist, and teacher. He is the Second/Assistant Principal Trombonist in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He recently spent two seasons as Acting Principal Trombonist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has held positions with the Philharmonia Zurich at the Zurich Opera House, Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, and Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Rodriguez has served on the faculties of Northern Illinois University, Concordia University, Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, and the Marrowstone Music Festival.
Mr. Rodriguez has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, American Composers Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra and Fulcrum Point New Music Project. In 2009 and 2010 he toured North America for 17 weeks with the Star Wars in Concert Orchestra featuring narrator Anthony Daniels (C3P0) and HD video. Mr. Rodriguez played in the world premiere performance and recording of Shulamit Ran’s Fault Line, a chamber work commissioned by the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series.
As a clinician, Mr. Rodriguez has given classes at Peabody Conservatory, DePaul University, Texas Christian University, The Ohio State University and many other institutions. As a chamber musician, he recorded and performed with the renowned Chicago Trombone Consort. As a soloist, he has appeared in Japan, Germany, New York, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas. He represented the United States at the Kyoto International Music Students Festival in Kyoto, Japan.
Mr. Rodriguez was selected as a participant for the prestigious 2005 and 2007 Alessi Seminar, the National Orchestral Institute and the Brevard Music Center. From 2003 to 2006, he was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Rodriguez has worked with world-class conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Nello Santi, Christoph von Dohnányi and Zubin Mehta.
Mr. Rodriguez is the first trombonist to receive the prestigious Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School. He holds a Master of Music Degree from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. His primary teachers include Joseph Alessi, Mark Fisher, Jay Friedman, Charles Vernon, Darren McHenry, Dennis Bubert and Andrew Russell.
“My Edwards trombone has a beautiful and flexible sound that responds immediately with a great articulation. Edwards trombones are amazing in the way that everything is interchangeable. Because of this, I was able to find a setup for most orchestral playing and then another setup for that matches the alto trombone for lighter orchestral works. Also because they are so efficient, they are easy to play, easy to sound good and a lot of fun to play.”