Born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, Josh began his musical training at the age of six. He studied piano at Bob Jones University in the studios of Lawrence Morton and Dr. Susan Kindall, studied theory and composition with Dr. Mark Parker, Joan Pinkston and Dr. Dwight Gustafson and earned a B.Mus in 2002. In 2006, he earned an M.A. in Fine Arts from Bob Jones with a dramatic production concentration.
In 2004, he won first place in the Soundforth Publications Composition Competition, in 2007 had a collection of Christmas chamber music published
by Soundforth. In the summer 2009, he received an honorable mention from the ESOTERICS International Choral Composition Competition in Seattle for three of his choral works and won first place in the Specturm Singers 30th Anniversary Choral Composition Competition. He has been commissioned by the New England Girls Choir for their 2009 concert season and tour of Williamsburg, VA, and for the Christmas season concert series of 2010. The University “Jurja Dobrile” in Pula, Croatia commissioned a work in 2009 for bayan quintet. The No Borders Quartet commissioned a chamber work which was performed throughout Italy in 2009 and presented throughout the Northeast and Colorado, spring 2010.
Most recently Josh was awarded the Frederick Fennel Prize from ASCAP/CBDNA for the best original score for concert band and the Leonard Bernstein Award.
Josh is currently an adjunct professor of humanities at Capital Community College and a private piano and composition instructor. He has received private composition instruction from composers Robert Beaser, Nancy Galbraith, Monica Lynn and soprano, Patrice Michaels, and participated in Master Classes with pianist, Matthew McCright, and composer, Chen Yi.
Josh is the composer for Colors in Motion, an arts collective in Cambridge, MA, and owns Sinensis Music, a composition studio in Hartford, CT.
Josh completed his MMus in composition in 2010 from the Hartt School of Music having studied with Robert Carl, Kenneth Steen and Larry Alan Smith.