Born in 1993, Joseph Wicks is a prize-winning organist, conductor and tenor. His principle work as a singer is with vocal ensemble The Gesualdo Six, of which he is the founding first tenor, and he founded chamber choir The Beaufort Singers in Cambridge in 2016 with whom he also founded the Boxgrove Choral Festival.
Joseph has sung with some of the top consorts and choirs including Alamire, Polyphony and Tenebrae. He is an early graduate of Genesis Sixteen, a training scheme for young singers run by The Sixteen and its director Harry Christophers. With The Gesualdo Six, he performs across the world in concert and on radio. The group record for Hyperion Records, and their releases to date have attracted international acclaim.
Recently, Joseph has started working as a video editor for groups such as The Gesualdo Six & The Marian Consort.
Joseph’s first organ teacher was Andrew Post at Salisbury Cathedral School. He continued to learn with Neil Cox, Stephen Farr, Daniel Cook, and studied with Gordon Stewart in Cambridge. Joseph is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) winning the Limpus, Shinn and Durrant prize for the highest mark in the practical examination. Joseph has given recitals in St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, King’s College Cambridge, as well as several other Cambridge colleges, municipal halls, and several cathedrals and churches across the UK. Joseph is passionate about new music and has given world premiere performances of organ pieces by Louis Andriessen, Neil Cox, Tarik O’Regan, Sven-David Sandström and Tim Watts.
As a conductor, Joseph has conducted works including Bach’s Magnificat & St John Passion, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, MacMillan’s Seven Last Words From The Cross and Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil. With The Beaufort Singers, Joseph directs the annual Boxgrove Choral Festival which takes place in late summer at Boxgrove Priory, West Sussex.
Career History
Before becoming a full time freelance musician, Joseph spent two years as Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral, appointed at the age of 23. Joseph’s duties at Truro included assisting in the training of the boy and girl choristers, conducting services and mentoring of the choral and organ scholars, as well as playing the world-famous Father Willis organ for most services. During his first year there, Joseph accompanied the choir on three broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 including a live concert broadcast of Duruflé’s Requiem. His CD with the choir of music by Dobrinka Tabakova was made a Gramophone Critic’s Choice in 2019. In addition, he was also Musical Director of the cathedral’s voluntary choir, St Mary’s Singers with whom he gave two performances of Bach’s St John Passion and recorded a CD of music by Cornish composer Paul Drayton, John Rutter and others.
Prior to this Joseph was Assistant Organist of St John’s College, Cambridge, having been its Herbert Howells Organ Scholar, and Musical Director of the Gentlemen of St John’s. In addition to playing for services sung by the world-famous College Choir, Joseph also toured with them widely to Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, The Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland and the USA. Joseph appears on four CDs for Signum Classics as accompanist to the choir and played for numerous live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3.
Joseph began his musical education as a Chorister, later Bishop’s (Head) Chorister, of Salisbury Cathedral, singing with them for six years where he first enjoyed the daily round of evensong and the rich repertoire of an English Cathedral Choir. He moved on to Lancing College as a Walter Stanton Music Scholar and was later awarded their Sixth Form Organ Scholarship. He then spent a gap year as Organ Scholar of Hereford Cathedral before moving to St John’s in 2013.