Joseph Conyers
“Joseph Conyers, longtime bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra, among about a dozen other hats, has been promoted to principal after some 13 years in the Nos. 2 and 3 slots,” writes Susan Elliott in Monday’s (5/15) Musical America (subscription required). “He succeeds Harold Robinson, who was Conyers’s teacher at the Curtis Institute. Appointed assistant principal in 2010 and acting associate in 2017, the 42-year-old musician was one of about 100 international musicians to audition for the top job … Conyers, originally from Savannah, GA, faculty member at Juilliard and at Temple University, says he will use his new platform, achieved with his 221-year-old double-bass he’s nicknamed ‘Norma,’ as a platform to inspire others…. Recipient of the [Philadelphia] orchestra’s … C. Hartman Kuhn Award … he is also the founder of Project 440, which, through music, gives young, often inner-city students in Philadelphia the agency … to lead and enrich their respective communities. He is also music director of Philadelphia’s All City Orchestra and music director of the Boston University at Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra. Conyers was one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals in 2018.” Conyers was previously a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
