Behind the Music: Josh Halpern, cello
April 9, 2026 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Join us for Cultural Caravan’s Behind the Music series in partnership with the Center for Musical Arts! Join Cultural Caravan’s Artistic Director Josh Halpern as he welcomes a lineup of dynamic artists for intimate evenings of live music, personal stories, and unscripted conversation. Get a rare glimpse into their creative process, hear music you won’t experience anywhere else, and bring your own questions about art, inspiration, and life.
Meet Josh Halpern
Josh Halpern has appeared on stages around the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral principal cellist. He has collaborated with artists including Jonathan Biss, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Roberto Díaz, Viviane Hagner, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Anthony McGill, Olli Mustonen, and Itzhak Perlman. He has appeared at music festivals including the Ravinia Steans Institute, Music@Menlo, the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Taos School of Music, La Jolla Summerfest, Musikiwest, and Krzyzowa-Music.
From 2021 to 2023, Josh was a member of the Karajan Akademie of the Berliner Philharmoniker under the mentorship of principal cello Ludwig Quandt, performing as a member of the Berlin Philharmonic. He has served as guest principal cello with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (2019) and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London (2023), and appeared as guest member cellist throughout the world with the Banff Competition-winning Rolston Quartet, the Varian Fry Quartet, the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Grammy Award-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
An eager advocate of contemporary music, Josh has worked personally with composers such as Bruce Adolphe, Richard Danielpour, Henrique Eisenmann, Scott Ordway, Kevin Puts, Dai Wei, Nick DiBerardino, and Kaija Saariaho. In 2025, he debuted In Real Time, a project showcasing living composers through immersive programs that combine new commissioned works with the music, literature, art, and contemporary sociopolitical circumstances that inspired them. The debut edition featured the premiere of Scott Ordway’s Letters to My Daughters for cello and piano, reflecting on parenthood amid social and political uncertainty.
Josh’s commitment to bringing music to unexpected places began with his 2018 solo tour across Colorado, performing in venues including the state penitentiary, small-town saloons, and bicycle shops. This work led to his founding of the Cultural Caravan in 2021, a Colorado-based organization that has since presented over 100 artists in coordination with over 60 local businesses and community organizations, raising and reinvesting over $600,000 into the community through vital year-round community programming.
Josh completed his Artist Diploma at The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Carter Brey and Peter Wiley and served as principal cello of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. As an undergraduate at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, he studied with Desmond Hoebig and won the school’s concerto competition. As a teacher, he has presented master classes throughout the United States and South America and served on faculty at Curtis Summerfest, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Brooklyn School of Music.
He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and performs on a cello by Domenico Busan, c. 1750, previously owned by his teacher Desmond Hoebig, provided on generous long-term loan from a member of the Stretton Society.