Joseph Franklin : Represented Artist
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Photo: Shannon May Powell
Artist website: http://www.josephfranklin.net
Joseph Franklin is an composer and bassist whose wide-ranging
practice combines formal and spontaneous modalities, drawing from
classical and experimental music, sound art, instrument design,
and foregrounds a distinctive approach to instrumentality.
He has composed for notable ensembles including Ekmeles,
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra,
Flinders Quartet, Australian Youth Orchestra, and The Music Box
Project. In 2022, he composed and performed solo in the
contemporary ballet Storm Approaching Wangi and Other
Desires. He has released several albums as bandleader, with
performances in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Senegal,
Belgium, France, Turkey, and Australia.
He is the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship from the
University of Pennsylvania, a Marten Bequest Fellowship, a 2021
Freedman Jazz Fellowship finalist nomination, a 2020 Art Music
Award for 'Excellence in Experimental Music'-where he was also a
finalist in 'Performance of the Year (Jazz/Improvisation)'-and
multiple grants from Creative Australia. His music is represented
by the Australian Music Centre.
Notable residencies and intensives include Tasmanian Symphony
Orchestra's Australian Composer's School (2024/25), Critical Path
(2023), Darmstadt Ferienkurse (2021), All That We Are (2020),
Stanford University intensive with Mark Applebaum (2019),
Bundanon Artist Residency (2019), the Australian Art Orchestra
Creative Music Intensive (2018), IRCAM Manifeste! (2017), Time of
Music Festival (2017) in Finland, and the Australian Youth
Orchestra Summer Music Program (2017).
In 2024, his debut solo contrabass guitar album, a thousand
tiny mutinies, was released via Nice Music label, and a
follow-up live duo album with Ben Carey was released in 2025.
He holds a Master of Music (Composition) and a Bachelor of Music
(First Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne and is
currently undertaking a PhD in Composition at the University of
Pennsylvania.
Joseph Franklin — current to February 2026
Selected Commissions
| Work | Commission Details | |
|---|---|---|
|
australian music : a so-called anthology (2025) | Commissioned by Ekmeles Ensemble. |
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|
an incomplete history of the art of the solo violin : violin solo (2024) | Commissioned by Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) for performance by The ANAM Set. |
|
|
mutinies : for orchestra (2024) | Composed for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra as part of the 2024-2025 Australian Composers’ School. |
|
|
WATER. RUINS. EVERYTHING. : (or, the quaking zone) (2023) | supporting partner; TarraWarra Estate. |
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|
you are meadow : for orchestra (2022) | Commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for the 2022 Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers Program |
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|
(A)Biotic Forces : for solo prepared guitar (2021) | Commissioned for the Guitar Perspectives Composition Award. With thanks to Peter and Rasika Crowley for their generous support of this award. |