Joseph Werner

Joseph Werner, Director of Piano Studies at Roberts Wesleyan University, was the Principal Pianist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for fifty years. He also served as the orchestra’s Personnel Manager from 1993-2017. Mr. Werner was the Co-Artistic Director of the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester from 2000-2013 and served for many years as CoChair of the Piano Department at the Hochstein School in Rochester. During his long tenure with the RPO, Mr. Werner appeared numerous times as a soloist in diverse concerto repertoire with conductors David Zinman, Mark Elder, Christopher Seaman, Jorge Mester, Peter Bay, Isaiah Jackson, and Enrique Diemecke. He has also been the featured soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, North Jersey Philharmonic, University of Rochester Symphony Orchestra, and the Penfield Symphony. As a collaborative pianist, he was the accompanist for the celebrated American violinist, Carroll Glenn, for many years, and has performed regularly with a host of RPO soloists, Eastman School of Music faculty, and visiting artists. He has toured across the United States with Mark Kellogg, Professor of Trombone at the Eastman School of Music, He has performed with international flute soloists Carol Wincenc, Per Öien, Alexa Still, Marianne Gedigian, Wissam Boustany, and James Walker. In the fall of 1997, Mr. Werner joined W. Peter Kurau, Professor of Horn at the Eastman School of Music, for a three-week tour as Artistic Ambassadors for the United States Information Agency. They presented concerts and workshops of American Music in Serbia-Montenegro, Macedonia, Kazakhstan, and Syria.

Mr. Werner has premiered works by Verne Reynolds, Libby Larsen, Erik Ewazen, James Willey, Lorenzo Palomo, and David Diamond. His recordings can be found on the Columbia, Vanguard, Musical Heritage Society, NEXUS, and Naxos labels. Most recently, he recorded an album of French music for trombone and piano with Mark Kellogg entitled “Impressions” and the world premiere of “Blue Windows”, a sextet for winds and piano written for him and the Antara Winds by the celebrated American composer, Libby Larsen. He has recorded Bill Cahn’s “In Ancient Temple Gardens” with Robert Becker, the worldrenowned percussionist from the NEXUS ensemble, and his recording of the Four-Hand Piano Music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk with the Eugene List won the High Fidelity Magazine “Critics’ Choice Award”.

Mr. Werner is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he earned Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees and the Performer’s Certificate. His teachers have included Eugene List, Brooks Smith, Leon Fleisher, and Rosina Lhevinne. He won the first Faculty Service Award at the Hochstein School in 1990. He was named Mu Phi Epsilon’s “Musician of the Year” in 2007 and RPO’s Musician Volunteer of the Year in 2017. He resides in Penfield with his wife, Professor of Flute at Roberts Wesleyan University, Diane Smith.