Joseph Fleetwood comes from an extraordinary musical lineage. His first teacher was Katherine McLauchlan, a pupil of Tobias Matthay (teacher of Myra Hess, Maura Lympany, Clifford Curzon). Joseph’s last teacher, of seven years was Scottish pianist George Donald, who was a pupil of Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Aube Tzerko. Schnabel and Tzerko were both pupils of Artur Schnabel, who was in turn a Leschetizky pupil. Leschetizky was taught by Beethoven’s favourite student, Carl Czerny.
Joseph has performed throughout Europe and the USA in Vienna, Milan, Naples, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and many other places. As a concerto soloist Joseph has performed many of the great piano concertos including Tchaikovsky 1 and 2, Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Rachmaninoff 1 and 2, Beethoven 1 – 5, Mozart 21, Shostakovich 2, Grieg, Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue and Mendelssohn 1. Joseph has worked with many outstanding and celebrated musicians including Josef Swensen, Gianandrea Noseda, Artur Pizarro, Malcolm Martineau, Karen Cargill, Miranda Keys, Stephen Clark, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the orchestras of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal College of Music.
Joseph’s playing has been broadcast on BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC Radio Scotland, and regional stations throughout the UK as both live performances and CD recordings. His debut CD featured some popular and lesser-known works by Edvard Grieg. In 2020 his recording of J.S. Bach’s Partitas was released on Sheva and has sold a staggering 750,000 downloads. In 2024 Joseph will record a further album of J.S. Bach’s music including the Italian Concerto and Inventions, also for Sheva Records. Joseph is also working with filmmaker Gabriel Wolf in Berlin on a short film project which will involve recording Rachmaninoff’s Preludes Op. 23.
Joseph holds degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal College of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from The University of Alabama, and has taught at the University of St. Andrews, the University of Aberdeen, and Alabama Center for the Arts.