Joel Roston

Biography:

Joel Roston is a guitar player and composer living in Belmont, MA. As a guitar player, Joel has played in, composed for, and toured with his own bands, Big Bear and Beautiful Weekend, as well as other projects, including Tyondai Braxton’s Wordless Music Group (in collaboration with the LA Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and The London Sinfonietta), Man Forever, Evan Ziporyn’s Critical Band, MIT’s Balinese Gamelan ensemble Gamelan Galak Tika, Glenn Branca’s 100-guitar ensemble for “Symphony No. 13 Hallucination City,” and Kevin Micka’s Animal Hospital Ensemble.

Joel has composed music for a number of ensembles including RAHA Duo, Boston Nonet, Brooklyn Brass, Till By Turning, Evan Ziporyn’s Critical Band, Dedham Country Day School, and Duo Orfeo—as well as several works for solo classical and electric guitar. In 2016-2017, Joel released a two-EP set of electronic arrangements of Civil War songs, Domain Vol. 1 and Domain Vol. 2, followed by 2018’s Day Owl, an album of personal napping music, which was released digitally by Joyful Noise Recordings. Joel’s most recent release, 2019’s Zynthetic Zketches Vol. 1, is an EP of analogue-synthesizer sketches.

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Joel studied classical guitar performance at the University of Hartford's Hartt School, spent five semesters as a visiting faculty member at Longy School of Music of Bard College leading classes on film scoring and media composition, and privately teaches lessons in guitar, composition, music theory, and music production.

Teaching Philosophy

Focused mainly in the classical and rock (in all of its guises) arenas, I am committed to tailoring lessons to each student’s particular learning style and interests. My love of music theory and lifelong commitment to rudiments is tempered by my deep interest in 'just plain messing around on the guitar.' A lifelong student myself, (intermittently studying piano and orchestration privately), I am very interested in practice hygiene and how to get the most out of time spent working on concepts outside of lessons.