Joshua Sawicki, pianist Classical Pianist from Denver, CO

Joshua Sawicki was born in New Britain, Connecticut, into a family of Polish, French, and Native American descent. He was raised in Unionville, Connecticut, where he began piano lessons at age 4. During high school he studied at the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music and won awards in various piano competitions, including the Musical Club of Hartford Piano Competition, Renee B. Fisher Piano Competition, Hartford Young Artists Concerto Competition, the Williams Chorale New England Young Artists Competition, the Audrey Thayer Piano Competition, and was the recipient of the Hartt School's Jeffrey Quinn Memorial Scholarship. Since then, Joshua has studied at the Royal College of Music (London, England), Boston University, University of South Florida, the Aspen Music Festival, the Chautauqua International Piano Festival, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival (New York City) and has completed three degrees while studying under his major teachers: Rebecca Penneys, Steven Mayer, John O'Conor, Anthony di Bonaventura, and Svetozar Ivanov. Recent awards include 1st place in the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra concerto competition, 1st place in the Lamont Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, 2nd place at the Artist Series of Sarasota piano competition, the Jacques Abrahms Piano Scholarship, 1st place in the USF Tampa Symphony Orchestra concerto competition, 1st place in the Stephen P. Brown concerto competition, 1st prize for the best performance of the commissioned competition piece ("Starlight," by David Liptak of the Eastman School of Music) in the 14th Chautauqua International Piano Competition. Joshua was a quarter-finalist in the Sixth Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial Competition (Novi Sad, Serbia), a semi-finalist in the Maria Herrero International Piano Competition, and a finalist in the 15th Chautauqua International Piano Competition. Currently based in Denver, Colorado, Joshua can be seen regularly as orchestral pianist for the Colorado Symphony (highlights have included Bernstein's Fancy Free, Stravinsky's Petrushka, Firebird, Symphony in Three Movements, Shostakovich's Symphonies #1 and #5, and Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra), as a member of the new-music group The Playground Ensemble (recently ranked one of the top five chamber groups in the state), and as principal pianist of the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent concerto appearances include d'Indy's "Symphony on a French Mountain Air" in Denver, Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto in Denver and in Grand Junction, Brahms' Second piano concerto in Tampa; Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's "Millennium Fantasy" with the Patel Conservatory Chamber Orchestra. Recent solo performances have been in Novi Sad, Serbia (Isidor Bajic Memorial), Paris, France (Association Philomuses), Manhattan (IKIF Piano Competition), Utrecht, Netherlands (Utrecht Conservatory), Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston Ethical Society), Tampa, Florida (Clarion Society, Rutenberg Chamber Festival), and Aspen Colorado (Spotlight Series) and Denver (Playground New Music Ensemble, Newman Center for the Performing Arts), and a world premiere video recording of Geoff Sheil's "Newport" (2012). Recently Joshua has appeared in recital with Silver Ainomae (Colorado Symphony principal cellist) and Brook Ferguson (CSO principal flutist) and on Colorado Public Radio. In 2014 he appeared in a series of Museum of Contemporary Art events where he performed with Mark Mothersbaugh (co-founder and lead singer of DEVO/composer of Wes Anderson film scores). Besides performing, Joshua is an avid teacher. Currently, besides teaching privately in Denver, he is an adjunct professor of piano at the Community College of Denver, affiliate faculty (and piano department coordinator) at Regis University, and is the owner and director of Colorado Music Quest, a music school in Aurora with over 100 students.