Photo by Shannon May Powell
Joseph Franklin is a composer and bassist whose wide-ranging practice combines formal and spontaneous modalities, drawing from classical and experimental music, sound art, instrument design, and foregrounds a distinctive approach to instrumentality.
He has composed for notable ensembles including Ekmeles, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Flinders Quartet, Australian Youth Orchestra, and The Music Box Project. In 2022, he composed and performed solo in the contemporary ballet Storm Approaching Wangi and Other Desires. He has released several albums as bandleader, with performances in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Senegal, Belgium, France, Turkey, and Australia.
He is the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania, a Marten Bequest Fellowship, a 2021 Freedman Jazz Fellowship finalist nomination, a 2020 Art Music Award for 'Excellence in Experimental Music'—where he was also a finalist in 'Performance of the Year (Jazz/Improvisation)'—and multiple grants from Creative Australia. His music is represented by the Australian Music Centre.
Notable residencies and intensives include Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra's Australian Composer's School (2024/25), Critical Path (2023), Darmstadt Ferienkurse (2021), All That We Are (2020), Stanford University intensive with Mark Applebaum (2019), Bundanon Artist Residency (2019), the Australian Art Orchestra Creative Music Intensive (2018), IRCAM Manifeste! (2017), Time of Music Festival (2017) in Finland, and the Australian Youth Orchestra Summer Music Program (2017).
In 2024, his debut solo contrabass guitar album, a thousand tiny mutinies, was released via Nice Music label, and a follow-up live duo album with Ben Carey was released in 2025.
He holds a Master of Music (Composition) and a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne and is currently undertaking a PhD in Composition at the University of Pennsylvania.
For enquiries or to be added to my mailing list, contact:
hello@josephfranklin.net
Scores available in digital or print can be found at:
Australian Music Centre