CCD Music Professor Joshua Sawicki
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Meet CCD Music Professor Joshua Sawicki
Joshua Sawicki was born in New Britain, Connecticut, into a family of Polish, French, and Native American descent. He began piano lessons at age four and has since 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 recently completed an Artist Diploma at the Lamont School of Music in Denver. His major teachers have included Steven Mayer, Rebecca Penneys, John O'Conor, Svetozar Ivanov, and Anthony di Bonaventura.
Recent awards include first place in the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra concerto competition, first place in the Lamont Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, second place at the Artist Series of Sarasota piano competition, the Jacques Abrahms Piano Scholarship, first place in the USF Tampa Symphony Orchestra concerto competition, first place in the Stephen P. Brown concerto competition, first 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), and a semi-finalist in the Maria Herrero International Piano Competition (Granada, Spain), and a finalist in the 15th Chautauqua International Piano Competition.
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, and Rhapsody in Blue with the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra and the Lakewood Symphony. 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 Ainomäe (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 and composer of Wes Anderson film scores).
As a performer in Colorado, Joshua appears regularly as an orchestral pianist for the Colorado Symphony, and as a member of the Playground Ensemble—Colorado's premiere modern music ensemble. Besides performing, Joshua is an avid teacher: besides teaching privately in Denver, he is an adjunct instructor of piano at Community College of Denver, and is the owner and director of Colorado Music Quest, a music school in Aurora with over 100 students.