Joseph Connell Regularly Engaged Extra Musician
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Percussion
Joseph Connell plays drum set and percussion with numerous symphony orchestras and ensembles. He appears on recordings with the National Symphony Orchestra including the Grammy Award®-winning “Symphony No.1” by John Corigliano and Remembering JFK 50th Anniversary Concert featuring Leonard Bernstein's “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story”. In addition to the NSO, Connell has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Calgary Symphony, and The Royal Philharmonic with Marvin Hamlisch and Idina Menzel at Royal Albert Hall. Musicals performed at the John F. Kennedy Center include Showboat, Wicked, Titanic, Andrew Lloyd Webber's By Jeeves, Stephen Sondheim’s Bounce (Mr. Connell plays drum set, timpani and percussion on the Original Cast Recording), An American in Paris, and Anastasia. Equally at home in rock and jazz fields, Connell has performed with artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Hugh Jackman, The Who, Yes, Tony Bennett (a progressive-rock group), and Lady Gaga. Connell's drum set and percussion work can be heard on PBS, The Discovery Channel, and The National Geographic Channel. Connell is on the music faculty at The George Washington University's Corcoran School of the Arts and his drum set transcriptions have been published in Modern Drummer Magazine. He has toured throughout the United States, Canada, West Indies, Central America, South America, Europe, and Russia, performing and giving master classes in drum set and percussion.