Artist description Joseph Packales was born in New York City in 1948. He received his education at The Eastman School of Music, Cleveland State University, and Kent State University. He has served the faculties of Skidmore College, Belknap College, and Cleveland State University and has been, since 1984, Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at The University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Packales’ list of works includes piano, orchestral, choral, and chamber pieces in addition to an opera, “Scenes from the Life of The Virgin Mary,” and a ballet, “Lilith.” He has fulfilled commissions from such artists and organizations as The Fox Trio, German violinist Christiane Edinger, The Figaro Trio, The Ohio Arts Council, The Erick Hawkins Dance Company, The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, The Presidential Orchestra of Turkey, and The El Paso Symphony Orchestra. His compositions have been performed by orchestras and soloists throughout the United States, and in Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Italy, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland. Most recently, there have been performances of his music in Turkey, India, Japan, and Chile.He has twice been nominated for The Pulitzer Prize, and has been honored with The Howard Hanson Prize, three Macdowell Colony fellowships, a major grant from the I.B.M. Corporation, and two grants from The National Endowment for the Arts. In 1997, he was named Composer-of-the-year by the Texas Music Teachers’ Association. In 1998, he signed an exclusive contract for the publication of his choral works with Voice of The Rockies.His large pieces of the last decade include “Brahmanirvana,” premiered at the 1993 Rockport Festival of Music, where he was Guest Composer; “I Was on the Sea,” a piece for large orchestra recently released on a commercial CD in a performance by The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra; and “Tour/Retour,” an orchestral piece premiered in El Paso and Ankara, Turkey, in 1995. Recently premiered were “O, What We Have Seen,” another piece for the El Paso and Ankara orchestras, “The Nativity,” for brass; and “Three Meditations under the Bo Tree,” a piece for euphonium and piano.“Lucidae,” a large-scale solo piano piece, was premiered and recorded by pianist Sylvia Shaddick-Taylor in October, 1998.On his worktable for 1998-1999 are “Trinity” for guitar;“I Am the Vowel A,” for trombones, “He Will Wipe Every Tear from their Eyes,” for bass quintet; and a second opera, “A Fisher at Dunkirk,” on commission from BBC television. Dr. Packales is also well known in the Southwest as a conductor, pianist, and church musician, now serving St. Paul’s Lutheran Church as choir director. He lives in El Paso with his wife, Barbara, a music and equestrian teacher, and her son, Michael, a second-grader.

Music Style Classical

Instruments piano

Albums Lucidae

Location El Paso, TX - USA

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