Adriano Banchieri arr. Joe Burnam: Magnificat from 2nd Concerto for Trombone Choir

Adriano Banchieri arr. Joe Burnam: Magnificat from 2nd Concerto for Antiphonal Trombone Quintets

A native Texan, Joe began studying trombone in Houston and Dallas with Joe Dixon, and later continued his studies at Indiana University with Keith Brown and Lewis Van Haney. In the summer of 1980, he won a Fellowship to the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.

From 1983 until his retirement in 2023, Joe served as Principal Trombone of the Italian National Radio Orchestra (RAI) in Turin, Italy. His performances with the orchestra received outstanding critical acclaim, including La Repubblica, which praised his “magnificent trombone” in Mahler’s Third Symphony conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli, and La Stampa, which described him as a “phenomenal trombonist” for Schnittke’s Five Fragments on Paintings by Hieronymus Bosch.

Joe appeared frequently as a soloist with the orchestra, performing works such as Leopold Mozart’s Alto Trombone Concerto and the contemporary piece Tif-Ereth by Emmanuel Nunes. In 1989, he was invited as a soloist to the 13th Contemporary Music Festival of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. For the 1991 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, he served as trombone soloist in Mozart’s opera Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebotes, where critics described his playing as “spectacular.”

In addition to his orchestral career, Joe has been invited to perform with numerous European and American ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the English Chamber Orchestra.

A highly respected and experienced pedagogue, Joe has given masterclasses and taught trombone and brass chamber music throughout Europe and North America. For over fifteen years, he collaborated with the Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen (Germany), directing and preparing the Blech Forest Trombone Ensemble and various brass chamber groups. With these ensembles, he participated in numerous international festivals in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

Active in jazz as well, Joe performed regularly with the ensemble Rhythm and Bones, dedicated to standard repertoire and new compositions for two trombones and rhythm section. He has also been deeply involved in commissioning, creating, and performing new chamber works and arrangements for trombone and brass ensembles. He was a founding member of the Brass Express Quintet and the East West Trombone Ensemble. His recording Trombone and Strings features works composed expressly for him.