Citizen musician, entrepreneur, and youth advocate, Joseph H. Conyers, principal bass of The Philadelphia Orchestra, has spent the whole of his career as a multi-faceted 21st-century artist whose innovative work in music education and access has been recognized internationally. In 2024 he was named The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Education and Community Ambassador, a newly endowed position. Awards for his many celebrated initiatives include the Sphinx Organization’s Medal of Excellence (2019), the organization’s most prestigious recognition; the Theodore L. Kesselman Award from the New York Youth Symphony (2019); the C. Hartman Kuhn Award (2018), the highest honor bestowed upon a musician of The Philadelphia Orchestra; Musical America’s 30 Top Professionals—Innovators, Independent Thinkers, and Entrepreneurs (2018); the Artist Teacher Award from the American String Teacher’s Association (2024); and high honors from the International Society of Bassists. In 2015 he was the inaugural recipient of the Young Alumni Award from his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Harold Robinson, former principal bass of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Edgar Meyer. In 2021 Mr. Conyers’s broad-ranging career was featured on an episode of Jim Cotter’s Articulate on PBS, which showcased his work as founder and vision advisor of Project 440, an organization that helps young people use their interest in music to forge new pathways for themselves and ignite change in their communities.

A 2004 Sphinx Laureate, Mr. Conyers has been a bass soloist with numerous orchestras and has for several years been an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He’s music director of Philadelphia’s historic All-City Orchestra, which for over 70 years has showcased the top high school musicians in the School District of Philadelphia, and he serves on the board of the prestigious Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He is co-host of the podcast Tacet No More with Philadelphia Orchestra Assistant Principal Cello Yumi Kendall. The podcast is a landing pad for positive discussions about the classical music industry and the belief in the power of music to better humanity. A frequent guest clinician and public speaker presenting from coast to coast, he is also a sought-after pedagogue with former students in orchestras in North America and Europe. He currently serves on the double bass faculty of the Juilliard School.

Mr. Conyers joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2010 as assistant principal bass. He served in the role of acting associate principal bass from 2017 to 2023, and he won the principal position in May 2023. He performs on the “Zimmerman/Gladstone” 1802 Vincenzo Panormo bass, which he has affectionately named “Norma.” Find him on social media @weatherclef.