“Joseph Kuipers is one of the rare musical voices of today: the fresh sincerity of his playing, combined with technical sovereignty over the instrument. He draws a dark, singing sound out of his( Gobetti) Cello, and creates lines that seem to float effortlessly.”

-Berliner Abend Post

American cellist Joseph Kuipers is renowned for his creativity and versatility in his captivating performances on both modern and gut strings. Appearing at festivals and music centers around the globe, he has performed at the Ravinia Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Les Festival International du Domaine Forget, Kronberg Academy, SXSW, Ascoli Pinceno Festival, Carl Orff Festival, and the World Cello Congress. Equally at home with modern and baroque performance styles, and often juxtaposing them in concert programs, Joseph is dedicated to the music of our time. He has worked extensively with living composers, among them Robert Cogan, Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann and Arvo Part.

Recent chamber music appearances include concerts with the Miró, Dover and Escher Quartets, violinists Chee-Yun Kim and Hye-Jin Kim, pianists Alex McDonald and Amy Yang and bandoneonist JP Jofre. 

He is Creative Director of the TexasCellos. Under his leadership their programming has expanded to include TexasCelloSchool, one of America’s premier cello institutes, TexasCellos SESSIONS concert series presenting the most renowned musicians of our time in casual venues, Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra, and Fredericksburg Music Festival and School.

Teaching plays a large role in Joseph’s musical career. He has held Professor positions at Washington and Lee University, Eastern University, Dallas Baptist University, and Binningen School for Gifted Students in Switzerland, as well as giving numerous masterclasses at festivals worldwide. Joseph maintains a private teaching studio of cellists in Plano /Dallas. His cello students regularly win prizes at local and national levels and have gone on to attend Princeton, Brown, Yale, Peabody, CIM, UNT, SMU, and Indiana University. Recent student prizes include Collin Country Concerto Competition, Dallas Symphonic Festival, MTNA, TMTA, GDYO Concerto Competition, TMEA All-State & and All-Region, TPSMEA All-State &All-region:; and his students are members of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra and Fort-Worth Youth Orchestra among others.

Joseph completed his undergraduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where his primary teachers were Paul Katz for cello and Pozzi Escot for composition. In order to immerse himself in the European Music Tradition, he subsequently studied for seven years in Germany and Switzerland. In 2008, Joseph received an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim, Germany; where he studied with Michael Flaksman. He completed his Master of Musical Arts from the Musik-Akademie der Stadt Basel, Switzerland, where he studied with Thomas Demenga. Other important influences came from Anner Bylsma, Rainer Faupel, Bernard Greenhouse, Mstislav Rostropovich and Hong Wang, and in chamber-music from Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartet.

He plays a cellos from Francesco Gobetti, Venice ca 1710, and Mason Weedman, 2024. 

Aside from his musical activities Joseph is a composer, painter, chess player, gardener, and avid fisherman. He can often be found in the great outdoors with his Australian Shepherd dogs, Yelka and Ronin.