Biography

Guitarist Joseph Pecoraro is recognized as a highly-accomplished concert and recording artist, teacher and author. His performing career has taken him to venues throughout North America and Europe, with appearances as a recitalist, featured soloist, chamber musician, and clinician. He has performed as featured soloist with numerous symphony orchestras and vocal ensembles, and collaborated with dozens of prominent singers and instrumentalists. Sample Presenters Listed Here

Pecoraro’s commercial recordings present stylistically diverse repertoire from around the globe.  His most-recent releases include ‘Perennials’, which features world-premiere solo guitar works by noted American Composers, as well as the holiday recording ‘This Little Light’ with multi-Grammy-winning tenor Anthony Dean Griffey.  He is also author of the widely-acclaimed music-reading text “Read this First”.  In addition to his recital career, Pecoraro also performs traditional Celtic-inspired music, jazz and fingerstyle guitar.

Mr. Pecoraro joined the artist-faculty of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 1998 as a full-time professor of guitar-teaching graduate, college and high school guitar majors.  Previous higher-education teaching positions include Salem College, Indiana University, and the University of Colorado. He is in frequent demand as a guest clinician and has served on the regular faculties of renowned summer music festivals in Colorado, Virginia, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, where he directs the ‘Nothing but Nylon’ Summer Guitar Workshop.

Following his long-standing interest in excellent music-making at the community level, Mr. Pecoraro has been involved with teaching guitar students using the Suzuki approach for over 30 years. He is a registered Teacher Trainer with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, offering courses in guitar pedagogy to teachers across the Americas.  He is also long-time student and trained teacher of the Alexander Technique - helping students use their thoughts to balance, move, and perform with greater coordination and ease.  His UNCSA students have won top prizes in competitions sponsored by the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, American String Teachers Association, Guitar Foundation of America and numerous regional solo and concerto competitions, and alumni have distinguished themselves as active performers, teachers and recording artists.