Scott Joiner

Scott Joiner Biography

The music of young American composer Scott Joiner draws on his rich musical background as an opera singer and jazz pianist, resulting in works that transcend category. He was hailed as “A dynamo… quite up to the task across the board” (New Music Connoisseur) for his first one-act opera, Connection Lost; The Tinder Opera, presented on film by The Center for Contemporary Opera, in addition to being staged live by Opera Carolina (2017), NYC’s Modern Opera Company at 244 Studio Theater (2020) and winning Best Score at Ireland's prestigious Kerry Film Festival.

Inspired by the idea of bringing younger audiences to opera and classical music, Joiner has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered as well as Keep It Classical and Indie Opera Podcasts. The composer’s recent works include Mother To Son (text by Langston Hughes) for baritone Matthew Gamble presented in a virtual co-premiere by The American Opera Project; Richard’s Ride: A Clarinet Fantasy for clarinetist Jon Mannasse; Schumann in New York for cellists David Gibson and Thomas Mesa and Together, an extended pandemic-inspired scene for soprano with text from a single issue of The New York Times, commissioned and presented by the OmniARTS Foundation, performed by Jessica Fishenfeld.

Equally comfortable in a variety of styles, Joiner's pop duet North Star is available on Amazon/Apple Music and his original song, We Have a Voice, was commissioned as the theme for Sherrill Milnes’ 2020 Savannah Voice Festival. He appeared as a guest for the SVF's Michael Ching & Friends alongside composer Libby Larsen.

Joiner’s most recent opera, The Shower, with a libretto by John De Los Santos premiered at the Wiener Kammeroper in 2019 after the 2018 success of The Bridesmaids (libretto by Adam Taylor and Scott Joiner) at the Odeon Theater Wien, both under the auspices of the Vienna Summer Music Festival. Joiner was both composer and librettist for The Death of a Grailsman, which was commissioned and recorded in 2019. Joiner’s other works have been heard at The 92nd St Y, The National Arts Club and the Laurie Beechman Theatre. Joiner won the First Annual ECKERD SINGS! Choral Commission Award (2018) presented by Eckerd College, who premiered Joiner’s choral setting of The Golden Hour in 2019.

Active in all aspects of opera, Joiner served as Dramaturg, produced and performed the title role in world premiere of Eric Salzman’s Big Jim & the Small-Time Investors for Gramercy Opera and Cutting Edge Concerts at Symphony Space, conducted by Victoria Bond. The premiere was hailed as, “Truly a fine piece of post-modern creative work” (Opera News). He directed the world premiere of Michael Valenti and Stacey Luftig’s The Story of an Hour for Gramercy Opera in 2019. Joiner was assistant to CCO Composer-in-Residence Eric Salzman from 2012 until his death in 2017 when he was named artistic executor.
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In addition to the Kerry Film Festival his works have been presented at dozens of film festivals around the world, winning Best Musical Score at the London Worldwide Comedy Short Film Festival, and a nomination for Best Score at the Southampton International Film Festival. Joiner wrote and conducted his own orchestral pops arrangements for A Night of Opera and Couture at Zankel Hall in 2018.

Mentored privately by award-winning composers Mark Adamo, Eric Salzman and John Bucchino, Joiner also holds a DMA from the Manhattan School of Music, where he took part in new music seminars with Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich and Richard Danielpour. As an opera singer, he created the role of Dickon in the world premiere of the Nolan Gasser’s opera The Secret Garden for the San Francisco Opera, worked with the Orchestra of the League of Composers on the premiere recording of Louis Karchin’s opera Jane Eyre and was a soloist in the US Premieres of Patrick Hawes’ The Great War Symphony and Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light: A Requiem at Carnegie Hall, where he also appeared as a soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra.