Joseph Bourdeau is a composer, educator and performer currently based in San Diego, California. Influenced by diverse artistic interests, Joseph’s work blends music, humor and theater, while often manipulating familiar sounds and situations in the pursuit of surreal new experiences.



    Active in a number of capacities Joseph has worked in mediums ranging from notated concert and theater music, to various kinds of free improvisation, electroacoustic, and popular music. His concert works have been presented across the U.S and abroad, with performances in Greece, Italy, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates. His 2019 work The Imaginary Concerto was toured across the U.S. by pianist Mari Kawamura as part of her New Virtuosities series, and his recent work This Way Forever has enjoyed several performances by In^Set. In 2018, Joseph wrote, recorded, and mixed songs for a production of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children, at the Mandell Weiss Theatre in La Jolla, and in 2019 premiered his own half-hour long monodrama Songs from Patmos: Music for the End of the World.



    Joseph continues to perform often, and in fall 2023 presented his evening-length multimedia performance i don’t remember falling asleep in La Jolla. He has presented several times at the Festival de Música Nueva Ensenada, where he most recently gave concerts and workshops on performing with found objects in 2023. Joseph appears as a percussionist on several records with the University of South Florida Percussion Group, and will be releasing an album of electroacoustic music with trombonist Berk Schneider, and electronic musician Douglas Osmun in 2024.



    Joseph holds bachelor’s degrees in Music Education and Composition from the University of South Florida, where he studied with Baljinder Sekhon, as well as a master’s in composition from UC San Diego, where he studied with Natacha Diels, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D under Wilfrido Terrazas and Michelle Lou.