Biography

A native of Recifé, Brazil, Joseph Augusto Guimaraes immigrated to Florida in 1998 and became a United States citizen in 2014. He started showing interest in classical music at the age of four and began studying the tuba at age nine. 

Mr. Guimaraes is a third-year Doctoral of Musical Arts student at the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music. While in Georgia, he served as the tubist for the Bulldog Brass Society Quintet under the coaching of Phil Smith. Joseph earned his Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music and his Bachelor of Music degree in tuba performance from the Lynn University Conservatory of Music.

His teachers include David Zerkel, Carol Jantsch, Kenneth Amis, Jay Bertolet, and Sean Murray. 

Mr. Guimaraes is currently a member of the United States Navy Concert and Ceremonial Band in Washington, D.C.

In 2019, Joseph earned the silver medal in the artist division solo competition at the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium & Tuba Festival. He also received the first-place prize at the 2017 NERTEC Solo Artist Competition held in Ithaca, NY.

In 2017, Mr. Guimaraes was one of thirty recipients of the highly coveted Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, receiving national recognition for his philanthropic efforts related to The Mouthpieces for All Initiative and Music Education.

He has held principal tubist positions for festivals such as the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and the Chautauqua Music Festival in Chautauqua, N.Y. While in Japan, Joseph worked with and performed alongside members of the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, The Metropolitan Opera, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, among others.

Mr. Guimaraes has been a featured soloist with the Blue Lake Festival Band, the Lynn University Wind Ensemble, the Florida Atlantic University Symphony Orchestra, and Florida Atlantic University’s Wind Ensemble.

Joseph has performed with ensembles such as the Yale Philharmonia, the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, Miami Symphony, Boca Raton Symphonia, the Lynn University Philharmonia, Orchestra Miami, the Chautauqua Music Festival Orchestra, the University of Georgia Brass Band, and the Orchid City Brass Band.

Mr. Guimaraes has performed under the baton of distinguished conductors Valery Gergiev, Jun Märkl, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Marin Alsop, Heiichiro Ohyama, Peter Oundjian, Giancarlo Guerrero, Guillermo Figueroa, Timothy Muffitt, Jon Robertson, Jerry Junkin, Ray Cramer, and H. Robert Reynolds.

Complimentary to his engagements in classical music, Joseph maintains an ongoing presence as an educator in the marching arts field. Mr. Guimaraes was a member of The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps’ brass educational team during their 2012, 2018, and 2019 seasons. He is also an active judge for the USBANDS competition circuit, adjudicating at both regional and national events. Joseph marched with The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps in 2006, 2008, 2010, and with the Spirit from Jacksonville State University Drum and Bugle Corps in 2005.

In 2015 Mr. Guimaraes launched his company The Valve Beanie and founded the Mouthpieces for All Initiative (MPFAI). MPFAI is a project whose mission is to promote and encourage music education to youth while focusing on specific training aspects that can inform life choices outside of the arts. Since its founding, MPFAI has donated over twenty-thousand dollars of equipment to deserving students both in the United States and abroad.

His continued efforts to broaden the reach of music education have been recognized by The New York Times, The New American, The Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation, Yale University News, Yale University School of Music, Lynn University’s iPulse, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

In keeping with his mission, Mr. Guimaraes served as a teaching artist with the Music in Schools Initiative and conducted the All-City Honors Ensemble in New Haven, CT.

Mr. Guimaraes is an avid conductor who has worked with groups such as the Lynn University Philharmonia, The University of Georgia’s Low Brass Ensemble, and The Florida Mandolin Orchestra. Joseph is especially proud of his collaboration with renowned Igor Stravinsky scholar David Noon during the 2015 New Music Festival and the 2016 Stravinsky Symposium, both hosted by Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music.

Joseph presently resides in Falls Church, VA, with his wife, Nicole Guimaraes, and their spoiled dog, Comet.