Joshua Thompson hails from Steubenville, Ohio, where he first took up trumpet studies with his grandfather, Louis R. Panebianco. Joshua attended college at the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, and received a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education. During his tenure at Youngstown, he performed in a vast array of performing groups including the Warren Chamber Orchestra, the Youngstown Symphony, and the highly prestigious Youngstown State University Jazz Ensemble I. The Jazz Ensemble I at Youngstown has been awarded the top honors at jazz festivals across the country and has been awarded the Downbeat Magazine Best College Big Band. During his four years in this group, Joshua performed with countless jazz legends including Eddie Daniels, Chuck Mangione, Bobby Shew, Marvin Stamm, Lew Tabacken, and James Moody, among others.Joshua received a Master of Music degree in Music Performance from the University of Kentucky in 1999. While at UK, Joshua was a semi-finalist at the National Trumpet Competition’s Masters Division in 1998, and performed as a trumpeter and a conductor at the International Trumpet Guild Conference 1998 in Lexington, Kentucky. Additionally, he was chosen to perform as part of a solo clinic in the 1999 International Trumpet Guild Conference at Richmond, Virginia, where he performed the extremely difficult Sonata for Trumpet and Piano by Peter Maxwell Davies, with pianist Rebecca Wilt. In addition to his activities as a trumpeter, Joshua served as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Kentucky. During this time he conducted various University ensembles in performances of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Stravinsky and others to much acclaim.
Upon commencement at UK, Joshua has taught high school orchestra for 15 years in Cobb County, Georgia, and the Plano Independent School District in Plano, Texas. He is currently in his 10th year at Shepton High School, where the orchestra program has grown from 79 students to 151 during his tenure. In 2011, the Foundation of Music Education named the Shepton Chamber Orchestra one of three National Winners in the Mark of Excellence – National Orchestra Honors Competition, despite Shepton High School being a campus of only 9th and 10th graders competing against 4-year schools. He was most recently named Teacher of the Year at Shepton High School in 2013.
