Josh Weinberg

Josh Weinberg, was in MAYSO for three years from 2007 to 2010 as a flutist. Having first auditioned on the three instruments he was learning at the time: oboe, flute, and bassoon, Dr. Amy Roisum-Foley, MAYSO's conductor at the time, decided he should play flute. He was a member until 2010, when he had to quit due to a busy schedule. He is now a harpist, a flutist, and a composer, and he wishes to create his own ensemble, someday.
Josh Weinberg, was in MAYSO for three years from 2007 to 2010 as a flutist. Weinberg got started while he was in eighth grade, when his band director had suggested he audition for the ensemble. He auditioned on the three instruments he was learning at the time: oboe, flute, and bassoon. Dr. Amy Roisum-Foley, MAYSO's conductor at the time, decided he should play flute. He was a member until 2010, when he had to quit due to a busy schedule, having been so involved in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony, speech, pep band, theater, and choir.

Josh started music when he was in fifth grade, in which he had chosen Tuba, then played it through Middle School before getting to flute:

I played Tube throughout middle school but was always jealous of the high woodwinds who always played beautiful melodies. My father had an old flute from his high school,so I picked it up one day and started teaching myself how to play. I became enchanted with the sound and wanted to explore even more instruments.

He also added clarinet, saxophone, oboe, piano, and bassoon to his resume around 8th grade. In high school, he played oboe in one band, clarinet in another, and flute in MAYSO. Deciding to settle on flute, he started private lessons during his Junior year and went on to college for Flute Performance. It was in college that he started harp.

Like many, MAYSO was Josh's first orchestral experience, and he identifies it as an "extremely important time in [his] development as a flutist." MAYSO helped him become confident as a soloist and as a "principal player in a leadership role." He enjoyed the music, stating it as the thing that made him come back each year, and he says that what sets MAYSO apart from other ensembles is that it has a "more nurturing environment," since many who join, like him, are new to the experience.

Josh described the conductor of the time, Dr. Amy Roisum-Foley, as a great inspiration for him, viewing her as "encouraging and an expert teacher," as well as "dedicated [and] a strong leader." He very much liked the way Dr. Roisum-Foley taught the orchestra, saying "she set us up for success and helped us become a better ensemble."

After graduating from LeSueur-Henderson High School in 2011, he continued to be very involved in music, primarily focusing on flute. While a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield, he had been principal flute for both the orchestra and band, also had been a soloist for both his senior year. Since graduating from St. Olaf, he has performed in the Greater Twin Cities Area with chamber orchestras such as the Zeitgeist, Renegade Ensemble, Contemporary Undercurrent of Songs Project, and the Spitting Image Collective. He is currently involved with the Grand Symphonic Winds and is on the sub list for Encore Wind Ensemble, La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, and Duluth Superior Symphony.

In addition to ensembles, he has been in pit orchestra for musicals around the state- also playing a total of seven different kinds of saxophones and clarinets for them- such as the Chaska Family Valley Theater, Lyric Arts in Anoka, Shooting the Glass Theater, and St. Olaf's Theater Department: "My favorite musical I've performed in is probably Mary Poppins."

Josh is also a composer and has had pieces premiered by Zeitgeist in St. Paul and MusikaNova in Northfield, along with premiering his own pieces in the Twin Cities area. He has recently performed Faure's Requiem as a harpist at the University Lutheran Church of Hope in Minneapolis. His resume seems to continue growing, as he has audition coming up, as well as performances with several Minneapolis groups, a musical, his "electro-acoustic" album called Today the Rain Fell, and applying for grants to continue performing and composing.

Josh even wishes to create a chamber ensemble and perform nationally, along with "writing and recording several albums of [his] own music. [He] also would like to get a Master's degree, eventually, and live in Europe for a year or two."

Of course, a musician's life is not easy. Although Josh was set on a music degree since middle school, he experienced doubt throughout his pursuance: "None of my friends were pursuing music, and I didn't even know anyone who went to college for a degree in music." Josh noted what many college students feel, with all the course work, the looming debt, and the new environment, "you are faced with so much self-doubt and anxiety, it is sometimes overwhelming."

I almost dropped out of college my Junior year. I was battling with intense feelings of depression and felt that I was not a good musician and shouldn't be in school... However, if it weren't for these moments of intense darkness, then I wouldn't have been able to have moments of clarity in remembering the importance for me of being a musician.

In the beginning of many musician's careers, it can get difficult financially: "it is hard not always knowing when your next paycheck will come... but I know that building a successful career in music takes a lot of time, energy, patience, and willpower." Over his career, Josh has taken other jobs to support himself, sometimes related to music and sometimes not. He got one of the jobs was working for Schmitt Music in Brooklyn Center through another MAYSO alum, flutist Bianca Najera, who now works in Michigan as a flute specialist for Flute World, "one of the biggest dealers of flutes and flute music in the USA." After MAYSO, they had "kept in touch a bit," later reconnecting after Josh graduated: "we have maintained a great friendship since!"

To work through difficult times, Josh says that he maintains a focus on "what matters: making beautiful music." Josh says that he owes his success to "hard work and coffee," along with the amount of support for family, friends, and current and past instructors through high school, college, and after. Despite events that he has counted as failures, he has his support team, while also reminding himself that, "a career in music is made up of many smaller opportunities that build up over time."

Overall, music can be difficult, and Josh notes that musicians are likely prone to feelings of failure, but he still maintains, if not emphasizes, that music is important (besides the fact that it is his career). He urges others to "keep music in [their lives]," and others to go to concerts: "You will see for yourself that many people are making success from the fine arts, and you will also see how you are transformed by music just by being an audience member."