In 2007, JOSEPH PEREIRA was appointed Principal Timpanist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by Esa Pekka Salonen. Previously he was the Assistant Principal Timpanist/Section Percussionist of the New York Philharmonic from January 1998 to September 2008. He currently runs the percussion department at USC’s Thornton School of Music while also teaching at the Juilliard School, where he’s been on faculty since 2005. Pereira received his master’s degree in percussion from the Juilliard School and a double bachelor’s degree in performance and composition/theory from Boston University.

As a composer Joseph Pereira’s most recent commission, from the Miro Quartet and percussionist Colin Currie, is to be premiered in the 2012/13 season on their U.S. tour.

In the 2011/12 season, the Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned and premiered his percussion concerto for soloist Colin Currie. Pereira performs the work again this season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles and in London at the Barbican. Also in the 2011/12 season, LA Phil members premiered his new piece for amplified double bass quartet as part of their chamber series. The Los Angeles Percussion Quartet recorded his piece Repoussé on a Sono Luminus release that has been nominated for a 2013 Grammy. In the summer of 2010, he conducted the premiere of his new piece for seven percussionists at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. In 2007, his first orchestral piece, Mask, was selected by the American Composers Orchestra’s annual new music readings for top emerging composers. At the New York Philharmonic, he conducted the premiere of his Quintet for Winds in 2005 on the Chamber Ensembles series at Merkin Concert Hall. The New York Times said, “it is a restless yet lucidly textured work with an astringent harmonic language.”

Pereira’s Conversation for Solo Flute was selected by Linda Witherell (original solo flutist with IRCAM) in an international “Call for Scores” through the American Music Center. Chief music critic Anthony Tommasini featured Pereira’s work as a composer and percussionist in The New York Times Arts section feature. All of his percussion music is published by Bachovich Music Publications.

Pereira has performed with the New York Percussion Quartet, the New York New Music Ensemble, Alea III, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Robert Shaw Festival Singers, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra as principal timpanist. He can also be heard on Telarc, Teldec, and Deutsche Grammophon recordings. He is an alumnus of the Tanglewood Festival and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan.