Joseph Carlomagno began playing music as a folk musician in New England. He later completed his violin performance studies in New Orleans with Amy Thiaville, and spent summers at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Michel Boris Zaitzeff, and the Aspen Music Festival and School with Espen Lilleslåtten. As a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, Joseph also studied molecular biology at Tulane University, composition and theory at McGill University, and German at the Universität Wien.
After a bike accident ended his career as a performing violinist, he continued as a conductor, studying at the Manhattan School of Music with George Manahan. He has been mentored by Bernard Labadie with Les violons du roy and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Leonard Slatkin, who invited him to a masterclass with the Detroit Symphony. He returned in 2021 to the Aspen Music Festival as a conducting fellow, studying with Robert Spano and Hugh Wolff. He has participated in masterclasses with Daniela Candillari, Roderick Cox, and Neeme Järvi, and assisted Pinchas Zukerman, and Jane Glover at the Fort Worth Symphony. In 2022, he was selected by a panel of musicians from the Wiener Philharmoniker as the AAF/Faber Young Conductors Fellowship recipient at the Salzburger Festspiele.
While healing from his injuries, Joseph had to relearn the mechanics of violin playing. As a teacher, he is dedicated to passing on his knowledge of freedom and ease to his students.