(header was created using an AI Image Creator and combining 3 results related to the title and theme of the piece)
Joshua Thomson Bio
Joshua Thomson (he/him) is an educator, performer, composer, and LGBTQ+ advocate currently
based in Nebraska. He enjoys composing solos for tuba and euphonium with electronics that
transport the soloist into different soundscapes. Joshua shares his experiences as a transgender
man through the music he performs and composes. He strives to improve the education experience
of LGBTQ+ students and his master's thesis "Inclusive Pedagogy for Transgender Students in Music" combines his lived experience as a transgender man with strategies for educators to make their teaching more inclusive.
Joshua is a winner of state solo competitions and was recently featured as a soloist with the
Washington State University Symphonic Wind ensemble where he performed Yasuhide Ito's
Fantasy Variations. Joshua is currently a DMA student at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln
with Prof. Bo Atlas as the tuba euphonium studio teaching assistant. Joshua earned his master's
degree at Washington State University with Dr. Chris Dickey and his undergraduate degree from
San Jose State University with Tom Hornig.
based in Nebraska. He enjoys composing solos for tuba and euphonium with electronics that
transport the soloist into different soundscapes. Joshua shares his experiences as a transgender
man through the music he performs and composes. He strives to improve the education experience
of LGBTQ+ students and his master's thesis "Inclusive Pedagogy for Transgender Students in Music" combines his lived experience as a transgender man with strategies for educators to make their teaching more inclusive.
Joshua is a winner of state solo competitions and was recently featured as a soloist with the
Washington State University Symphonic Wind ensemble where he performed Yasuhide Ito's
Fantasy Variations. Joshua is currently a DMA student at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln
with Prof. Bo Atlas as the tuba euphonium studio teaching assistant. Joshua earned his master's
degree at Washington State University with Dr. Chris Dickey and his undergraduate degree from
San Jose State University with Tom Hornig.
disquiet program notes
There aren't any official program notes at the moment, but I just want to say I feel so lucky to have been able to collaborate with Joshua to get this piece together. This piece was written specifically to open this recital and revolves around having social anxiety, hence the title "disquiet". The backtrack features people whispering, heartbeats, and footsteps mixed with synth and sweeping orchestral musical material. He left a lot of the interpretation up to me, and I love hearing how different people understand and interpret music.
Personally, I interpret the beginning as someone feeling fairly in their element, the balance between the soloist and the backtrack is fairly equal. VERY personally, I rehearse a lot of conversations in my head before I have them, so the repetition of the theme really reminds me of that. Then, once the whispering starts, the soloist is marked at a piano dynamic. I interpret that as now that the soloist is in the crowd, they tend to get talked over or don't have the courage to speak up, so it easily gets covered. The soloist also plays specifically on offbeats, so it's not quite solid. It's also a fragmented part of theme, which I interpret as not being able to articulate your full thoughts clearly and how you rehearsed them. Once that sort of orchestral style comes in and the soloist bumps up the dynamic, I interpret that as the soloist is back home and sort of overthinking the conversation and their lack of speaking up. It shifts from A minor to E minor, which are obviously both minor, but E minor just has that sense of longing and almost a sense of anguish, PARTICULARLY those high Es followed with their descending lines. This is followed with a cadenza-esque section. I think the lack of pulse just really solidifies the isolation the soloist is feeling at this moment, which is followed by a similar reiteration of the beginning of the E minor section. After THAT, we have this really particular eighth note section from the soloist underscored with musical material from the beginning of the piece but shifted from A minor to E minor. I'm not sure how to fully interpret this part yet. The piece ends without ever resolving back to A minor (which doesn't QUITE help my theme of a situation followed by hope), but at least for me personally, I've had growth so I would say there's hope for overcoming some sort of social anxiety.
Personally, I interpret the beginning as someone feeling fairly in their element, the balance between the soloist and the backtrack is fairly equal. VERY personally, I rehearse a lot of conversations in my head before I have them, so the repetition of the theme really reminds me of that. Then, once the whispering starts, the soloist is marked at a piano dynamic. I interpret that as now that the soloist is in the crowd, they tend to get talked over or don't have the courage to speak up, so it easily gets covered. The soloist also plays specifically on offbeats, so it's not quite solid. It's also a fragmented part of theme, which I interpret as not being able to articulate your full thoughts clearly and how you rehearsed them. Once that sort of orchestral style comes in and the soloist bumps up the dynamic, I interpret that as the soloist is back home and sort of overthinking the conversation and their lack of speaking up. It shifts from A minor to E minor, which are obviously both minor, but E minor just has that sense of longing and almost a sense of anguish, PARTICULARLY those high Es followed with their descending lines. This is followed with a cadenza-esque section. I think the lack of pulse just really solidifies the isolation the soloist is feeling at this moment, which is followed by a similar reiteration of the beginning of the E minor section. After THAT, we have this really particular eighth note section from the soloist underscored with musical material from the beginning of the piece but shifted from A minor to E minor. I'm not sure how to fully interpret this part yet. The piece ends without ever resolving back to A minor (which doesn't QUITE help my theme of a situation followed by hope), but at least for me personally, I've had growth so I would say there's hope for overcoming some sort of social anxiety.