Dr. Joshua Harper, D.Mus. 

Praised for his “inspired” conducting (The Daily Courier - Arizona), Dr. Joshua Harper is currently the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Wilkes University, where he conducts the Chamber Singers and University Chorus. He also teaches music theory and private voice, while serving as the musical director for many of the B.F.A.’s musical productions. In June of 2024, Harper was named the second Artistic Director of the Choral Society of Northeast Pennsylvania, now entering their 28th season. Their first two seasons together have produced some of the region's most acclaimed performances, including their performance of Duruflé's Requiem and Hagenberg’s Illuminare in November 2025 to a standing room only crowd at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Wilkes-Barre. The ensemble also regularly performs with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, where Dr. Harper prepares the ensemble for Maestra Mélisse Brunet.

Harper is the founder of the Quartz Ensemble, a fully professional chamber choir drawing singers of international renown from across the country. Following on the heels of their acclaimed performance of St. John’s Passion in March of 2025 with the Arizona Philharmonic, Quartz Ensemble traveled in Spring of 2026 to be in residence with the Vocal Arts Conservatory at the California School for the Arts - San Gabriel and Citrus College, where he helped prepare a performance of Carmina Burana and conducted Evensong with a talented roster of multiple Grammy-nominated singers.

Dr. Harper has performed on some of the nation’s largest stages, including Carnegie Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He maintains an active schedule singing and adjudicating across Pennsylvania, including being asked to step in at the last minute as the conductor for the PMEA District #9 Chorus in March 2025. He has also adjudicated and served as a clinician at festivals in Massachusetts, Vermont, Arizona, Idaho, and Tennessee.

Harper can be found on Parma Recordings’ 2019 release, Preach, Sister, Preach, featuring soprano Katherine Jolly, on which he conducted the premiere recording of Katherine Bodor’s “Absent an Adjustment.”  In January 2016, he made his Canadian debut as one of the five conductors in North America invited to participate in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir's Emerging Conductor Symposium, where he conducted the Grammy-nominated Elora Festival Singers and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. He was selected as a Conducting Fellow at the Yale University Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 2015, studying with Simon Carrington.

A native of Huntsville, Alabama, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance and Music Composition from Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN), the Master of Music degree in choral conducting from UMass Amherst, and the Doctor of Music degree from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, with a minor in Music History and Literature. He is an avid supporter of Chelsea Football Club.