Joshua Coyne

Joshua Coyne (born March 5, 1993) is an American musician and composer.
Personal biography
Joshua was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 5, 1993. He was adopted at the age of two and moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Coyne family was involved in the local arts community, participating at Theatre Cedar Rapids and the Cedar Rapids Symphony. Joshua quickly expressed interest and aptitude in music and took his first lessons at the Cedar Rapids Symphony School. In 2006, Joshua and some of his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where he continued his violin studies with Lya Stern and began composition study.
After moving to D.C., Joshua performed for then candidate Barack Obama at the Stand for Change Rally in February 2008, as well as for the Haitian Embassy.
Coyne composed the score to Anne and Emmett, a play about Emmett Till and Anne Frank written by Janet Langhart Cohen. The premiere of the play was to be held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on June 10, 2009, but was canceled due to a shooting earlier that day.
In the summer of 2011, Joshua was the subject of a series of articles describing the difficulties students may have getting scholarships, loans, and grants, to be able to afford college. As a result of these articles, Joshua received numerous donations which allowed him to attend Manhattan School of Music.
Joshua plays on a custom bow by Joshua Henry, and a violin he named "Lya" for his teacher, made by Joseph Curtin.
Coyne is the co-subject of a documentary film entitled Sonata Mulattica, which will compare his life with the life of George Bridgetower based on the collection of poems of the same name, written by poet laureate Rita Dove.
Education
Violin instruction by Lya Stern, herself a student of Jascha Heifetz and Raphael Bronstein, who were in turn students of Leopold Auer
Composition instruction from Judah Adashi at Peabody Institute
Composition instruction from Joel Hoffman, chair of the composition department at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati
Composition mentor Marvin Hamlisch
Graduated from Winston Churchill High School (Potomac, Maryland)
Conservatory students accepted in 2011 into the Manhattan School of Music composition department, studying under Robert Sirota and Richard Danielpour
Notable accomplishments
Performances
Performed for 13,000 at Barack Obama's Rally for Change
Performed the role of Tom Collins in Rent at the 2009 American High School Theatre Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland
Performed a solo concert at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
Compositions
Composed the score for Anne and Emmett, a play by Janet Langhart Cohen about Emmett Till and Anne Frank
Daydream, a composition which won Gold at the NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics.
Composed True Love, a three-movement ballet
Awards
Named one of Bethesda Magazine's 2011 Top Teens
NAACP ACTSO Gold
Discus Awards scholarship winner
Other
Subject of an article describing the difficulties students may have getting funding for college.
External links
Daydream
Daydream with video
Maryland Gazette Interview (video)
NAACP ACT-SO Awards
Documentary "Joshua Coyne: On Composing"
American Composer Forum profile
Joshua Russell and Joshua Coyne at the Haitian Embassy
References
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wypr/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1300950
https://web.archive.org/web/20110728092020/http://www.theatrelab.org/josh.asp
https://web.archive.org/web/20110515120605/http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=311236&paper=70&cat=180
"Musical expression gives students an emotional outlet", The Churchill Observer, January 4, 2010
https://web.archive.org/web/20110710164418/http://easterniowalife.com/2010/12/09/cedar-rapids-native-to-be-showcased-in-documentary/
1993 births
African-American classical composers
American classical composers
African-American male classical composers
American jazz violinists
American male violinists
Child classical musicians
American child musicians
American adoptees
Living people
Musicians from Kansas City, Missouri
Musicians from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
People from Potomac, Maryland
American male classical composers
Jazz musicians from Maryland
Jazz musicians from Missouri
Classical musicians from Missouri
Musicians from New York City
Jazz musicians from New York (state)
Classical musicians from New York (state)
21st-century American violinists
21st-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
21st-century African-American musicians