Joshua Muetzel staffId: 684

Joshua Muetzel is a music preservation specialist, composer, and percussionist. He holds a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Denver, and a Master of Arts in Performance Studies and Bachelor of Arts in Music from Texas A&M University. 

His compositional output runs the gamut from works for concert band and string orchestra to percussion ensembles and eclectic chamber groupings, including music for hardcover books and open instrumentation quartets. He has worked with artists including arx duo, Calefax Reed Quintet, Ensamble CienFlores, Ensemble for These Times, ensemblenewSRQ, folx Percussion, NOW Ensemble, Sandbox Percussion, numerous university ensembles, and many classical soloists. His music has been performed across the United States and internationally, and has been recognized by The American Prize, Black House Collective, Tribeca New Music, The U.S. Naval Academy Band, and others.

Josh is the co-founder and artistic director of the South Florida New Music Collective, an organization dedicated to amplifying the voices of and providing opportunities for lesser-known, emerging composers from the South Florida area, and fostering collaboration and community with local artists and performers.

A large amount of his creative and academic output also centers around steel bands and the steel pan, his primary instrument. Josh has been a steel pan composer, performer, and educator for over a decade and is passionate about both (re)educating the general public about the history of the instrument and advocating for new music for the pan. His master's thesis, I'm With the Band: Cultural Education and Community Formation Within Steel Bands, investigated the seemingly inherent qualities of steel bands that promote community formation and growth. His steel band and steel pan music has been performed throughout the United States.

In 2024, he joined the University of Miami as the music preservation specialist in the Weeks Music Library. His research interests include contemporary classical music, steel pan performance and composition, Caribbean music and performance, temporal perception in music.

Josh is also a roller coaster enthusiast (coaster count 101), a cinephile, a coffee enthusiast, and an ordained minister for all your wedding ceremony needs.