Joshua Peckins, Performance and Teaching Biography

Joshua Peckins, award-winning concert violinist and faculty at the New England Conservatory Prep School, has performed throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia, from Carnegie Hall to Beijing’s Performing Arts Center. Having played chamber music and recitals in the United States, Vienna, Paris, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Japan, and Canada, he was also invited to give solo performances and pedagogical lectures in Japan – broadcast on national television.

Mr. Peckins’ students have been accepted into the Eastman School of Music, Peabody Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Longy School of Music, the Prayner Conservatory in Vienna, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Schulich School of Music at McGill, and MIT. Former students are currently pursuing successful performance careers in the United States, Canada, England, and Austria. He previously maintained a private studio in Vienna, Austria, and his students have come from the United States, Japan, England, Israel, Canada, Poland, Iran, India, and China, and have ranged from beginners to conservatory level students and performing professionals. Dedicated to passing performance experience on to students everywhere, Mr. Peckins created the Peckins Studio Online to help students everywhere.

As a performer, Joshua Peckins is most passionate and active as a recitalist. He launched his recital series Art of the Recital in 2016 with a mission to bring the great masterpieces of the solo violin repertoire back into our regular concert-going experience. He is also in the middle of a six year lecture recital project, Invitation to Bach and Ysaye, in which he is performing the complete works for solo violin by Bach and Ysaye.

Internationally, Mr. Peckins has performed for the Austrian federal president (also broadcast on national television), performed on the Artist Series of the Bled Festival in Slovenia and at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, given a solo recital in the renowned Figaro Hall of Palace Pálffy (where Mozart himself presented his “The Marriage of Figaro”), and recorded a special scale system for the Vienna University of Music.

Mr. Peckins is also an active chamber musician, having performed with the New England Bach Festival at Marlboro, A Far Cry, Camerata New England, Music at Eden’s Edge, and Manchester Summer Chamber Music. As an orchestral musician, he has served as associate concertmaster of the Cape Cod Symphony and first violinist of the Boston Philharmonic, as well as at the Monadnock Festival and in various festivals in Italy, Slovenia, and Austria.

First appearing as soloist with orchestra at age 11, Joshua Peckins has performed as soloist with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, the Bach Consort, Manchester Summer Chamber Music, the Orchestra on the Hill, and the Wakefield Choral Society, performing concerti and solo works by Brahms, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Sarasate, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Vivaldi, and John Williams. Of a recent solo appearance with the Bach Consort, the Worcester Telegram wrote, “Peckins ably nailed his solo turns, executing the ‘Polonaise’ and ‘Badinerie’ with particular brilliance.”

Mr. Peckins’ teachers include some of the legendary figures of classical violin playing. He owes his greatest gratitude to Michael Frischenschlager, former concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, European soloist, and president of the Fritz Kreisler International Violin Competition, as well as Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo String Quartet, Marylou Churchill of the Boston Symphony, Syoko Aki of Yale University, Lynn Chang, Tymur Melnyk, Maria Benotti, and Trudy Larson.

Post.Grad Vienna University of Music, MM Yale School of Music, BM New England Conservatory. Violin and Chamber Music faculty at New England Conservatory Preparatory School and Extension Division.