Joseph Rebman

  Joseph Rebman is a rising harpist and composer with a passion for new music. A recipient of the Alice Chalifoux prize for harp, Rebman frequently performs solo and with ensembles around the U.S.  Recent highlights include the Mozart concerto for harp and flute in July 2020 with the Queen City Chamber Orchestra in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the premiere of his concerto “Hyperion” for harp and orchestra in June 2019 at the Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs, NY. Previous accolades include semi-finalist for both the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh competition and the Classics Alive Artists Competition, and a finalist for the National Collegiate Solo Competition hosted by The United States Army Band "Pershing's Own”. He was also a finalist for the Anne Adams Awards competition, and a finalist and honorable mention in the Coeur d’Alene Symphony's Young Artist Competition. During the spring and summer of 2014 he performed the Debussy, Mozart, and Handel concertos with orchestras in Oklahoma and Colorado. He was a winner of the Rocky Ridge Music Center’s concerto competition, and a finalist for the Eastern Music Festival’s concerto competition. Rebman is currently principal harpist with the Kentucky Symphony, the Huntington Symphony (WV) and the Queen City Opera (OH). Previously he was acting principal with the Amarillo Symphony (TX).

A strong believer in new music, Rebman is frequently involved in the premieres of new music and the promotion of the harp to composers. Since the summer of 2019 he has been harp faculty at the Mostly Modern Festival, where he gives lectures and seminars to composition students about the harp and performs new works by students and faculty as part of the American Modern Ensemble. Rebman has also given lectures on writing for the harp to students at Atlantic Music Festival, Cleveland Institute of Music Young Composers Program, Rocky Ridge Music Festival, University of Oklahoma, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Based on this experience, Rebman was invited to be a featured presenter at the 2018 American Harp Society National Conference, speaking as part of a panel on the topic of commissions and working with composers.

Rebman has commissioned 30 works for solo harp throughout his career, and the best of these works will be featured in his debut solo album. He has also premiered multiple works for harp and trombone as part of the JOLO duo, who released their debut album in February 2020. Rebman was a featured harpist and composer for the 2018 inaugural season of the Mostly Modern Festival at Skidmore College, and at the TUTTI 2017 and 2015 New Music Festival at Denison University. He was also harpist in the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival – Yale School of Music’s New Music Workshop in the summer of 2016. He first discovered a love of new music as principal harp for the FiveOne Experimental Orchestra in Cleveland.

As a composer, Rebman has written for a variety of ensembles, while also specializing in modern techniques of harp composition. He premiered his harp concerto Hyperion at the Mostly Modern Festival in their 2019 season. 2017 featured the premiere of Twilight for solo harp at the 2017 TUTTI New Music Festival at Denison University. 2016 premieres included He Would Not Stay: Seven Poems of A.E. Housman for Baritone and piano, premiered by “The Secret Opera” in New York City and Hyperion: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra with piano. Mnemosyne, a suite of character pieces for harp and flute, was selected for performance at the NACUSA 2016 convention in Knoxville, Tennessee and at the 2015 TUTTI New Music Festival. Eros for solo harp was featured at the 46th annual Ball State Festival of New Music in 2016 and won third prize in the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs’ Collegiate Composers competition. Summer of 2014 found Rebman in Estes Park, Colorado, as a participant in RRMC’s composition program. The Faculty Ensemble there premiered his song cycle He Would Not Stay: Seven Poems of A.E. Housman for Baritone and pierrot ensemble. Rebman also participated in the Atlantic Music Festival, where Mnemosyne was first premiered. Elegy for solo alto flute was selected by the Greater Cleveland Flute Society for inclusion in their Composers’ Connection concert.

Along with performing and composing, Rebman is an active teacher. He directs the harp program at Cincinnati’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts, a public arts-magnet school where students in grades 4-12 have daily harp ensemble class during the school day. They also prepare solo repertoire and perform in the school orchestra. Rebman instructs college students as professor of harp at Northern Kentucky University and harp faculty at the Mostly Modern Festival.

Rebman is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has studied harp with Michelle Gwynne, Yolanda Kondonassis, Gaye LeBlanc, and Gillian Benet Sella. Composition studies have been with Jeremy Allen, Robert Paterson, and Marvin Lamb.

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Rebman discovered the harp at age ten through Disney’s Fantasia, creating a love for all things harp that was fostered through study with the late Michelle Gwynne and performance in his school’s string orchestra for eight years. Happiness is also found in video games, yoga, dogs, and Italian food.