About this Artist

Justin Ochoa is a percussionist and timpanist from San Antonio, Texas. In the 2021/22 season, he performed as the principal percussionist of the California Young Artists Symphony—a dynamic ensemble of college-age performers based in Thousand Oaks—and made appearances as guest principal timpanist with the American Youth Symphony. This summer he appears as a percussion fellow with the National Repertory Orchestra. Previously, he held fellowships with the Round Top Festival Institute, Texas Music Festival, and the virtual Detroit Symphony Summer Institute in 2020. Justin has been engaged as an extra percussionist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and Midland-Odessa Symphony. He is finishing graduate study with Ted Atkatz at the Colburn School. Justin received his bachelor of music degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with Thomas Burritt and Tony Edwards.

Outside of performing, Justin founded and runs the podcast “Classically Untrained” with co-host Marissa Marmolejo, a music therapy student in Colorado. The show’s mission is to speak directly to university and conservatory students in marginalized communities and to have an honest and open dialogue about feeling like “the other” in the music field. When not performing, Justin enjoys writing, hanging out with friends, and boxing.