Joseph Celli

Joseph Celli (born March 19, 1944) is an American musician and composer specializing in contemporary and improvised music for oboe and English horn. In addition, he plays the Yamaha WX7 MIDI breath controller, as well as double reed instruments from several Asian cultures, including the Korean hojok and piri, and the Indian mukha vina.

His early training was as a jazz saxophonist which allowed him to work his way through college performing with rhythm and blues and jazz groups as he began specializing in experimental performance for the oboe and English horn. He studied oboe with Ray Still of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and members of the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and other leading oboists. Subsequently, he received a Fulbright Award to study piri with National Living Treasure Chung Jae-Gook in South Korea and the hichiriki at the Imperial Court Gagaku in Tokyo, Japan.

Celli has conducted much work in the field of experimental music, both as a performer and presenter, and has worked with Jin Hi Kim, John Cage, Ornette Coleman, Phill Niblock, Pointless Orchestra, Roberto Carnevale and the Kronos Quartet. He has performed in over 40 countries and presented, with Jerry Hunt, the first live satellite performance in the United States. As a concert presenter he has been involved in over 3,000 events including world premieres by Steve Reich, John Cage, and many others. He presented the U.S. premieres of SPIRAL and SOLO by Karlheinz Stockhausen in addition to over 50 works composed for him by various composers.

Celli served as a co-director with Mary Luft of Tigertail Productions for two New Music America festivals in Hartford, Connecticut and Miami, Florida. He is a founding member of the No World Improvisations ensemble and Executive Director of the Black Rock Art Center in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States. He is also the founder and director of O. O. Discs, a CD label devoted to new music that has released over 70 discs.

External links

• Joseph Celli page
• Black Rock Art Center site

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