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Joseph Houston
Joseph Houston is a British pianist based in Berlin. His performance practice, described as “breathtakingly virtuosic” (Die Zeit) and marked by “technical-mastery” (Stuttgarter Zeitung), encompasses contemporary and experimental music, late 19th- and early 20th-century piano repertoire, music for alternative keyboard instruments, and his own compositions.  With a focus on integrated, curatorially-driven programmes combining diverse musics — challenging and informing the understanding of each individual voice — his work is marked by a deep commitment to artistic collaboration. Motivated by an exploratory attitude towards both the sonic capacities of the piano, and the boundaries of the composer-performer-audience relationship, his is an expansive and inclusive definition of creative pianism.  He has appeared at festivals and venues including, among others, the Berlin Biennale, BBC Proms, Cafe Oto, Konzerthaus (Berlin), Cheltenham Festival (UK), Kölner Philharmonie, Philharmonie (Berlin), International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival (Nicosia), Southbank Centre (London), Lille Piano(s) Festival (FR), AFEKT Festival (Tallinn) and the Ultraschall Festival (Berlin). Recent highlights include solo performances at the 2019 Donaueschinger Musiktage, and a recording of 

Thomas Simaku’s chamber music with Quatuor Diotima, available on BIS.

  In 2019, together with American violinist 

Sarah Saviet, he formed the Saviet/Houston Duo with whom he has since performed widely throughout Europe. Following their first performance together at Berlin’s Radialsystem, the duo’s recent activity includes the world premiere of a new work by Rebecca Saunders and Enno Poppe at Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik 2022, an appearance at London’s Wigmore Hall, and a concert of new violin and retuned piano works by composer Catherine Lamb at KM28 in Berlin. They released their debut album a clearing, featuring five co-composed pieces, on Marginal Frequency in September 2024, and their next album will be released in 2025.

  He is a member of the 

Octandre Ensemble, a new music group based in London, and the Phonetic Orchestra​: a collective of musicians based in Melbourne, Perth, and Berlin dedicated to exploring durational performance and the fluid borders between composition and improvisation. Further collaborations include work with Rolf Hind (piano), Lore Lixenberg (voice), and Lucy Railton (cello), as well as performances with the Boulez Ensemble, Ensemble Berlin PianoPercussion and Ensemble KNM Berlin. 

  Houston has collaborated with numerous composers on new and recent music including, among others: Rebecca Saunders, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Christian Mason, Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, Enno Poppe, Zeynep Toraman, Bryn Harrison, and Christian Wolff. Recordings of his performances have been released on labels such as WERGO, Another Timbre, Naxos, BIS, Sacred Realism, and Winter & Winter.