Joseph Houston is a British pianist based in Berlin. His performance practice encompasses a range of music, including contemporary and experimental music; late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century piano music; music for synthesizers; and his own compositions.

At the University of York and the Royal College of Music, London, he studied the core classical piano repertoire with Ashley Wass, Andrew Ball and Ian Jones. Since his studies, performances have included wide ranging selections of music from Scarlatti, Ives, and Scriabin, to Rădulescu, Christian Wolff, and Chiyoko Szlavnics. Soon after graduating he performed Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie with the University of York Symphony Orchestra and gave performances of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, John Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra (with the RCM Contemporary Music Ensemble), as well as giving a solo recital of Beethoven, Debussy, and Thomas Simaku at Wigmore Hall.

Joseph performs as a soloist and with various groups, with recent performances including duos with Rolf Hind (piano), Lore Lixenberg (voice), and Lucy Railton (cello), as well as larger collaborations with Quatuor Diotima, the Boulez Ensemble, and Ensemble PianoPercussion Berlin. Festival and venue appearances include among others Berlin Biennale; Lille Piano(s) Festival; Donaueschinger Musiktage; BBC Proms; Konzerthaus; Cheltenham Festival; Philharmonie; Southbank Centre; and Wigmore Hall.

Recent highlights include solo performances at Donaueschinger Musiktage; the world premiere of a new violin/piano work by Rebecca Saunders and Enno Poppe at Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik; the performance of new violin and retuned piano works by Cat Lamb in Berlin in 2022; and a portrait CD of composer Mark Barden, released on WERGO.