Credentials

Master's in Music Education, Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, 2015

Master's in Bass Trombone Performance, Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, 2015

Bachelor's in Bass Trombone Performance, Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, 2013

Certified Maryland Music Educator

Biography

Joe Buono is a musician, educator and entrepreneur. 

Joe is widely known as the co-founder and arranger for the Melodica Men, an internationally-acclaimed music duo. Since their inception in Summer 2016, the Melodica Men have gained a million followers across Facebook and YouTube and over 100 million views worldwide for their entertaining and virtuosic videos. They have been soloists with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, featured on ABC's "The Gong Show,” and briefly seen on NBC's "America's Got Talent.” The Melodica Men even sell their own branded melodicas and sheet music on www.melodicamen.com. Joe is very excited about developing the melodica’s potential as an educational instrument, and has already started melodica pilot programs in elementary schools in North Carolina and Jacksonville. You can find the Melodica Men on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and support their music education mission on Patreon. 

As a bass trombonist, Joe got his start when he was awarded a full scholarship to join the Brass of Peace, and then studied with Matthew Guilford of the National Symphony Orchestra. Joe earned both his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Bass Trombone Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and studied with Randy Campora of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He won the 2012 Eastern Trombone Workshop’s National Solo Competition, Bass Trombone Division II, and has participated in some of the country’s most prestigious music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival and the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute. Joe has performed with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Rodney Mack Philadelphia Big Brass, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Choral Society, Prince George’s Philharmonic, and Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra. Joe can be heard on the Peabody Wind Ensemble’s 2013 Grammy-nominated CD, Johan de Meij: The Symphonies (Naxos). Additionally, he has played in master classes for members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra and Canadian Brass.

As a composer, Joe’s first composition, Fantasy for Solo Trombone and Trombone Octet, won the 2014 Eastern Trombone Workshop's National Composition Competition, making him the first person to have won both the performance and composition competitions. Joe’s second composition, Eclipse, was a finalist at the Southeast Trombone Symposium’s Composition Competition. Eclipse can be heard on the Legacy CD, featuring the Artists of the Southeast Trombone Symposium, representing orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra (Zurich), the Alabama Symphony, the Houston Symphony and others. Members from these symphonies later commissioned Joe to compose a piece, Elegy for Trombone and Piano, which was premiered by Dr. Cory Mixdorf. Joe recently composed another trombone choir piece, “Transcendental Chorales,” which was performed at the STS and ITF in Summer 2018. 

As a music educator, Joe earned his Master’s in Music Education from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, and is a Certified Maryland Music Educator. His Master’s Thesis compared music and language acquisition research to create a beginning piano curriculum based on modern science, and he presented his research as a guest lecturer at the Peabody Conservatory in 2015. Joe interned at Worthington Elementary School and Centennial High School in Howard County, MD. 

While at the Peabody Conservatory, Joe was awarded the Azalia H. Thomas Prize for Instrumentalist for earning a 4.0 in Music Theory, the Jack E. Russell Markert Endowed Scholarship, was on the Dean’s List with High Honors for all six years, and received a 4.0 for both his Masters degrees. In 2013, Joe was inducted into the Epsilon Omicron Chapter of the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society. Joe has also volunteered with several Baltimore-based projects including Peabody’s Tuned-In, Creative Access, and Junior Bach programs. 

Joe currently lives in Jacksonville, FL, where he maintains his own private piano studio and works on Melodica Men. Joe loves being in nature, traveling, exploring meditation and spirituality, reading mostly non-fiction, and listening to lots of nerdy podcasts.