Guitarist Joseph Pecoraro is recognized as a highly-accomplished concert and recording artist, teacher and author. He is a professor of guitar at UNCSA, and teaches additional courses in Pedagogy and the Alexander Technique.
As a recitalist he appears as soloist, chamber musician and with orchestras across the United States and abroad. He has performed as featured soloist with the Roanoke Symphony, Wintergreen Music Festival and Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestras, numerous vocal ensembles and collaborated with dozens of prominent singers and instrumentalists.
I strive to help develop the whole artist and person, using a constantly-evolving repertoire of practice activities and materials. Students learn to become skillful and versatile creators, interpreters, improvisers and performers - not just to play specific pieces.
Joseph Pecoraro
Credentials
- Certified Teacher of the Alexander Technique - helping students overcome the limiting and injurious habits of tension and miscoordination
- Previous higher-education teaching positions include Salem College, Indiana University and the University of Colorado
- Frequent guest clinician and faculty of renowned summer music festivals around the U.S.
- Registered Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, offering courses in guitar pedagogy to teachers across the Americas
Career Highlights
- Albums include "Perennials," which features world-premiere solo guitar works by noted American Composers, as well as the holiday recording "This Little Light" with multi-Grammy-winning tenor Anthony Dean Griffey
- Author of the widely-acclaimed music-reading text "Read this First"
- Also performs traditional Celtic-inspired music with violinist Katherine Wiley as well as jazz and fingerstyle guitar
- Featured recital performances in France, Italy, Switzerland, Mexico and across the U.S., including solo recitals at the Kennedy Center, the Washington Library and the Chicago Cultural Center
Awards, Recognitions and Honors
- UNCSA Excellence in Teaching Award, 2021
- Former students have won top prizes in competitions sponsored by the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, American String Teachers Association, Guitar Foundation of America and numerous regional solo and concerto competitions and alumni have distinguished themselves as active performers, teachers and recording artists
