Biography
Joi Harper is a composer, vocalist, and teaching artist based in Boston, Massachusetts. Their music focuses on exploring our world and commenting on our unique experiences. As a musician with such a diverse background, she often includes a multitude of styles and genres within her own work, prioritizing the sounds she heard growing up and exploring the vast world of music we are all a part of.
Joi began her musical journey at a young age, learning piano, clarinet, and violin until settling on the voice. She always had an ear for song and began songwriting for her family at 8 years old. Later on, this songwriting and her love of music exposed her to the world of composition and all the possibilities that it holds.
Joi's works consist of choral music, chamber works, and song. Their most recent large-scale work is Soul Food: Exploring the Black Experience through Inherited Traditions for Modified Pierrot Ensemble. In this work, like many of her other works she uses her music to explore concepts of heritage, culture, social experiences, and everyday life. Joi’s music has been heard nationally at the American Choral Directors Association National Conference in 2019 and debuted internationally in Nairobi, Kenya. Joi has received commissions for the Chroma Collective and Castle of Our Skins organizations. They have also composed and arranged for the Nairobi Chamber Chorus, George Mason University Chorale, Transient Canvas, Longy School of Music Ensemble Uncaged, and many more.
In addition to their compositional experience, Joi also works as a teaching artist, presenting as a guest composer as well as maintaining her own private studio in voice, piano, and composition. Most recently, she has presented at the Community Music Center of Boston’s Young Composer’s Festival. She is well-known for her ability to create an engaging and individual experience both in private lessons and public presentations. Joi’s love of teaching spurs from the ability to expose individuals to the world of music and to connect the love of music with a foundation of valuable life lessons and skills.
Joi’s unique introduction into the field of composition inspires her to think of new ways to include more creators in the field, predominantly minority and female composers. As a multi-instrumentalist growing up, Joi was regularly surrounded by all different kinds of music and several different kinds of composers. She feels that it is important to recognize that composers exist in all genres and can often blur the lines between genres. In doing so throughout her own writing, performing, and teaching she encourages genre inclusivity and exploring music beyond one’s own comfort zone. She continues to find new ways to incorporate social justice into her work and life. Joi looks forward to finding new ways to accomplish this goal and awaits what lies ahead.
Joi obtained a Bachelor of Music degree from George Mason University (Music Composition with a Minor in Music Technology) and is finishing a Master of Music degree at Longy School of Music of Bard College (Music Composition), where she was awarded the Nadia and Lili Boulanger Scholarship and the Presidential Scholarship.